Samsung Galaxy S4 Sell-In: 20 million units in 60 days ...
>> Galaxy S4 sales surpass 20 million
Korea Times
Kim Yoo-chul
2013-07-03
koreatimes.co.kr
The sales of Galaxy S4 (GS4) have topped the 20 million mark in late June just two months after its launch in May, Samsung sources said, Wednesday.
The robust performance has dismissed concerns over the future sales of the firm’s’ flagship Galaxy S4 smartphones raised by global investment bank JPMorgan.
“I’ve already recognized the fact,” Samsung co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun told reporters after Wednesday’s weekly regular meeting with chief executives of Samsung affiliates at its main office in Seocho-dong, southern Seoul.
“Official announcement will be coming soon,” the CEO, who is one of the three Samsung Electronics CEOs, said.
He did not comment on the exact figure as the firm is scheduled to announce its earnings guideline for the second quarter on July 6. Details about the company’s divisional performance in the latest quarter will be publicized in the last week of July.
According to Samsung sources, the firm has sold more than 20 million GS4s globally both at home and abroad as of the end of June.
Company spokesman Park Han-yong declined to confirm as the firm is now in a “quiet period” before announcing its quarterly earnings report.
The sales curve is the steepest ever since Samsung started its handset business decades ago. It took only a month to sell over 10 million GS4s since its global debut.
The Galaxy S3, its predecessor, hit the 20 million milestone 100 days after its release. The GS4 was selling 1.7 times as fast as its predecessor, said the sources.
“From conversations we had with some of the key suppliers of the GS4, we remain convinced that the production is in line with their original schedule, and well on track to reach our target of 22 million in the second quarter,” said Mark Newman, senior analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein in Hong Kong in a note to clients.
“While it is true that production will begin to slow starting in July, this is only following the natural life cycle of flagship smartphone products and the GS4 has already been in production for several months,” Newman added.
Samsung still targets to sell 100 million GS4s. JPMorgan recently predicted that Samsung’s GS4 will witness a sudden drop in stock prices as the U.S.-based investment bank insisted that the sale of the product will clearly miss market expectations.
Samsung is diversifying the GS4 models by recently launching the device that supports the LTE-Advanced telecommunications technology.
In the meantime, a recent survey by a local private think-tank showed that around 33 percent of iPhone users in Korea are planning to switch to smartphones by Samsung Electronics.
In a survey of 3,763 smartphone users, DigiEco, a research unit of KT, found that 34.6 percent of 416 iPhone users in Korea are willing to change the devices to others.
Galaxy S smartphone users showed a higher level of loyalty among customers. About 16.3 percent of Galaxy S smartphone users said that they would buy an iPhone, while 65.4 percent said that they would buy another mobile device by Samsung in the future. ###
- Eric - |
