Samsung is yet to reveal its official sales for this quarter, but a new report claims that the tech behemoth has been left disappointed as sales of its Galaxy S20 lineup turned out lower than expected.
According to a South Korean news blog, the Galaxy S20 series only sold 60% as much as the Galaxy S10 series in the same period in 2019. Samsung is expected to announce the official quarters by the end of this quarter, but if there's any truth to the report, the poor sales are the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which has all known industries across the globe. In fact, Strategy Analytics reports that global monthly shipments of smartphones decreased by nearly 40% as of February.
While Samsung hasn't confirmed the information, the company still has something to thank for, as the Galaxy S20 Ultra proved to be a hit among fans. The Ultra is quickly becoming more popular than the standard S20 and S20+, making up more than half of all S20 series pre-orders.
After seeing the Ultra gaining popularity, Samsung has ordered more camera modules for the smartphone, said one source close to the company. The S20 Ultra features 100x digital zoom and a 108 million pixel camera.
Last year, Samsung has shipped around 36 million Galaxy S10 units. With sales off to a disappointing start, it's likely that the company will not reach the same mark with the Galaxy S20 family. Apart from the coronavirus pandemic, Samsung also faces the threat of the competition, with rivals like Huawei set to release new products this year.
While COVID-19 has affected gadget sales, other reasons pointing toward the new flagship's poor sales are the reduced subsidies from carriers and the company's high pricing. To recall, Samsung predicted last year the Galaxy S10 will be its best-seller, but the S10+ ended up becoming the most popular instead.
And yet, Samsung hasn't exactly been consistent keeping its sales high in recent years. The Galaxy S7 sold a whopping 40 million units in 2016. The next year, the S8 managed 38 million units, while the S9 sold 32 million in 2018. S10 reached 36 million last year, and it's expected the S20 sales will even become lower this year.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 launched in 20 countries on March 6. The rest of the world gets to experience the premium smartphone by the end of this month.
