Lots of rumor in that article, but it should easily be possible. Samsung can launch with an item that can only be produced in small quantities. Apple can't go iPad retina display until they can produced in huge quantities.

There was a similar effect during the Macintosh clone period. As Motorola would tick out faster processors, the cloners would launch as soon as they could get silicon, meanwhile Apple had to wait until they could get enough processors stockpiled and the Motorola's production rate up enough to support a new Apple model. It created a market where the cloners were perceived as the higher performance machines and Apple was always late to the party.