Citing brokerage analysts, The Korea Herald reported Tuesday that Samsung's latest Galaxy S8 flagship smartphone has moved fewer units than the previous-generation Galaxy S7 model.
Samsung sold an estimated 9.8 million units in Galaxy S8's first two months of availability, or about 20 percent less than Galaxy S7’s twelve million sales in the same period last year.
It should be taken into account that Galaxy S8 started selling in three key markets while its predecessor sold globally immediately.
The report attributed the sales decline largely to the saturated smartphone market and, in part, to fiercer competition from Chinese rivals. Samsung apparently reduced supply orders for some parts, an unnamed industry source said.
That Samsung hasn't' bragged recently about Galaxy S8's sales is another indication of the potentially slowing sales. “We estimate Galaxy S8’s sales volume to be similar to that of Galaxy S7 for now,” is all a Samsung official had to say about the matter.
The only data point Samsung shared was on May 16, when it said global shipments of its latest flagship smartphone exceeded ten million units in its first three weeks of availability.
Galaxy S8 debuted on March 30 and started selling globally on April 21.
“Since the 10 million shipment, Samsung is not revealing sales figures possibly due to slowing sales,” said a local analyst. “We assume Galaxy S8 is selling less than Galaxy S7.”
