728,000 Galaxy S8 units were already pre-ordered in Korea

Apr 13, 2017 09:04 GMT  ·  By

Figures coming from South Korea indicate that Samsung’s recently announced Galaxy S8 is already a hit, even before the smartphone's release on April 21. Samsung’s mobile business chief Koh Dong-jin recently held a press conference in Seoul and revealed details about the pre-order process.

A total of 728,000 Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ units were pre-ordered in Korea, while Samsung is aiming at selling 1 million units even before the smartphone officially launches next week. When asked about pre-order figures in the US, Samsung’s mobile chief refused to provide exact numbers but said that they were higher than those of its predecessor, the Galaxy S7.

To build up hype around the new device, Samsung set aside a marketing budget similar to that of the Galaxy S7, but with added funds for recovering brand image following the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco last year. Indeed, Samsung decorated the whole Times Square in New York City for the Galaxy S8 launch and placed statues in the UK, promoting the new flagship.

Samsung conducted extensive tests on the Galaxy S8

In regards to China, the official said that “China is the market we can never give up,” and acknowledged that Samsung has had a hard time over the past two years in this market. To improve its market share in China, where local smartphone manufacturers dominate the sector, Samsung offered a Galaxy S8+ variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.

The same model was offered in Korea too, where the initial stock of 150,000 units is already sold out. Moreover, Bixby is expected to arrive in Chinese in mid-May, while Samsung says that the rollout in the US will happen until the end of spring.

Regarding battery safety, Samsung’s official mentions that the company carried out “battery tests for more than 200,000 units of the Note 7 following the issue and more than 100,000 units for the Galaxy S8.” He then assures customers that the Galaxy S8 is safe for use, especially after efforts to develop a new quality assurance procedure that would spot any manufacturing issues early on.