Samsung Galaxy S5
A new Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone is seen on a display at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona February 23, 2014. Samsung Electronics unveiled a new smart watch and fitness band along with the latest version of its flagship Galaxy smartphone on Monday, demonstrating how the battleground for innovation is shifting from the hand to the wrist.Picture taken on February 23. Reuters/Albert Gea

On 24th April, Samsung released a 60 seconds advertisement dubbed 'The Next Big Thing Is Here' flaunting the Galaxy S5's camera by comparing it to iPhone 5S's camera unit. Alas, the next day, the company was put in a situation to admit that Samsung shipped a limited number of Galaxy S5 smartphones with "inoperable" cameras and that it has taken necessary steps to make sure the issue does not reoccur in future shipments.

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In a statement to media, Samsung said "We have learned that a limited number of Galaxy S5 devices may have an issue that causes a Camera Failure pop-up error message to appear."

According to BGR, the Galaxy S5's primary camera gives the following error message upon trying to access the camera "Warning: Camera Failed" and the camera stops working thereon. Even after a device reboot the problem seems to persist.

In addition, Samsung requested the customers who are affected by this camera problem to contact their network carrier (mobile service provider) or Samsung's customer service department directly for replacement.

The much awaited and most anticipated phone of 2014, the Galaxy S5's camera problem cropped up only last week which is less than a month after the flagship's worldwide launch. Notably, Samsung is relying on the Galaxy S5 to surpass its predecessor, the S4 and trying to capitalize on the brand name in an aggressively competitive market. It is worth noting that, Apple's iPhone 6 is on its way.

Interestingly, Samsung tried to keep the expectations low by notifying that the profits are going to fall in the first quarter (January to March), it is the second straight quarter of decline for the South Korean company.

Problem Description

The statement from Samsung explained the problem as a complication in the ROM (Read-Only Memory) component of the phone that stores required information to operate the in-built camera on Galaxy S5 phones. The statement also stressed upon the fact that, this issue is only with a limited number of (early production of) the Galaxy S5 units.

Nevertheless, the South Korean company did not give any update on the exact number of Galaxy S5 phones affected by this camera problem. It is worth noting that, the problem has occurred not only with the phones shipped in the United States of America but also with few other countries.