14 DAY TRIAL // The Galaxy S9 flagship series is selling slower than expected, and this is causing a substantial decline for Samsung in total smartphone sales this year.
The Korea Herald reports that Samsung planned to sell a total of 350 million units this year, but the company has recently acknowledged internally that this target would be missed.
“Samsung's goal this year is 350 million units, which is higher than originally reported, and considering the lower-than-expected sales of the Galaxy S9 and its struggling mobile business in China, the figure appears to be a far-fetched goal,” a source familiar with the matter said.
The main culprit for Samsung failing to meet its sales goal is the Galaxy S9. The success of this model during the pre-order program made the company believed that it would sell in high numbers, and it eventually decided to increase its sales target from 320 million units to 350 million.
Quoting data provided by research firm Strategy Analytics, the cited source says this would have been the best sales performance for Samsung in the last years, after shipping 319.7 million units in 2015, 309.4 million in 2016 and 319.8 million in 2017.
Note 9, S10 launching earlier than expected
But the Galaxy S9 is now proving to sell slower than originally anticipated, and analysts now expect Samsung to sell only 73 million units during the April to June quarter.
The weak demand for Samsung’s new flagships is one of the reasons the company plans to bring the next generation to the market earlier than originally planned. The Galaxy Note 9 is now expected to see daylight in early August, while the Galaxy S10 is projected to launch in early 2019.
A foldable device could also be introduced in the first quarter of the next year, eventually helping Samsung return to growth in the smartphone market. Models from rivals like Apple and Google are also projected to launch in the meantime.