14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung launched the Galaxy S21 with much fanfare earlier this month, and now that shipping is about to start to customers across the world, a report from South Korea reveals something rather unexpected.
Samsung doesn’t expect the Galaxy S21 to be such a big hit in the smartphone market, as it actually anticipated rather modest sales that would be on par with the ones of its predecessor.
As many people know already, the market performance of the Galaxy S20 has been severely hit by the global health issue, and it’s believed this is the reason the company launched the Galaxy S21 earlier than anticipated.
On the other hand, it makes sense to expect the S21 to sell better than the model it replaces, especially because the market conditions have slightly recovered. But as far as Samsung is concerned, the company’s leaders are just fine if the Galaxy S21 matches the performance of the Galaxy S20.
Base model to account for most sales
South Korean publication The Elec claims Samsung expects to ship just 26 million Galaxy S21 devices this year, the same number of Galaxy S20 phones sold last year.
Needless to say, the base model is likely to account for the biggest share in the entire lineup, with some 10 million shipments, or some 40 percent out of the total output. The Galaxy S21 Plus and S21 Ultra will each account for 8 million units, or 30 percent of Samsung’s Galaxy S21 production inventory.
Samsung has included big changes on this year’s Galaxy S lineup, and the Ultra model alone comes with substantial improvements, such as support for the S Pen. This is believed to be the first step towards the complete demise of the Note series, as Samsung wants to streamline its product offering and thus get rid of this redundant device by adding its signature capabilities to other devices.