Despite the fact that Samsung has announced that its newest flagship handset, the Galaxy S III, will be available from five different carriers in the US, two carriers - Sprint and AT&T - have disclosed that the delivery of the handset will be delayed due to "overwhelming demand and limited supply."

Along with the Galaxy S III's inventory constraints resulting in stock shortages for the two mentioned US carriers, a third carrier - T-Mobile - has raised the cost of the handset considerably --- while the 16 GB and 32 GB versions of the handset have otherwise been priced at $199 and $249, T-Mobile is selling them for $280 and $330 respectively.

According to a Reuters report, the overwhelming demand for the last-week-released Galaxy S III in the US has apparently taken Samsung by surprise; with the company now estimating that the sales of the handset will go past the `10 million units' mark in the first two months of its availability.

However, the Reuters report also added that the Galaxy S III shipping delays, resulting from stock shortages, could likely cost Samsung nearly 2 million units of sale of the handset in one month.

With Samsung having told Reuters that the Galaxy S III demand has "far exceeded our expectation," Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi told the news agency that Samsung was probably "caught off guard by the demand" because the company apparently "over-estimated the competition."