Samsung’s current flagship, the Galaxy S9 has just made history. But it’s something that they probably don’t want to be known for. For the first time in its almost-10-year history with the Galaxy S series, the Korean OEM is shipping less of the devices in the second quarter than they did in the first quarter. This obviously indicates that the smartphone isn’t selling as well as they expected or wanted and that is not a good sign for the company.
Korean news site The Bell published the shipment numbers for the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus, showing that for the second quarter of the year, they are shipping nine million units. Compared to the previous quarter’s 10 million units, that is indeed a big discrepancy. Normally, their second quarter numbers are bigger since the devices are typically released towards the end of the first quarter. While they had a great start, the fact that interest in the device has decreased over the months is worrying.
Samsung first quarter profits showed a 20% increase in year-on-year revenue and this is mostly due to their semiconductor business and the initial sales of their flagship devices. But as early as then, there were already signs that they may be facing challenges. This is “due to stagnant sales of flagship models amid weak demand and an increase in marketing expenses.” There was also an increase in competition when it comes to the high-end smartphone segment where their flagship line previously reigned supreme.
So back then, Samsung already expected this decrease in demand for the Galaxy S9 line. And yes, there may be flagship fatigue in general in the market, but you can also lay a bit of the blame on the smartphones themselves. Expectation was high that the new flagships were going to be groundbreaking but what we got was just a very slight and almost unnoticeable improvement from the previous one. Yes there were new things, particularly with the cameras and all, but it still wasn’t enough for the market to get excited.
The announcement of the Galaxy Note 9 is just a few weeks away and Samsung is probably hoping that the phablet will make up for the poor performance of the Galaxy S9. But again, unless there is something radically different from this new device, we may see little excitement and demand for another expensive smartphone that is more of the same.
VIA: The Bell
