Android Circuit: Galaxy S6's Sales Disaster

[zerogear]

Title is clickbait, but seems like a fair question considering how people were raving over it

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspe...gle-samsung-galaxy-s6-sales-note-launch-date/

Korean news agency Yonhap reports that it has taken a month for sales of the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge to reach 10M. Speaking to Yonhap a ‘high-ranking Samsung official’ confirmed this figure for the first time. Trying to put a positive spin on it the official said: “The sales of the Galaxy S6 series have already surpassed 10 million.”

...Galaxy S4 shipped 10M units in 27 days while the much criticised Galaxy S5 took 25 days to ship 10M units...

...combined sales of the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge to only pass 10M in a similar timeframe to the S5 and S4 represents a disastrous return...

All of which poses the obvious question: if Galaxy S6 Edge sales are performing above expectations, just how bad are Galaxy S6 sales?

 

[poofyhairguy]

Where does Android go from here?

 

[Crono]

Saturation of "good enough" hardware. Many people aren't going to upgrade until they have to.

 

[dawheat]

The problem with the S5 wasn't initial sales, but how sales cratered after the first couple months. It ended up moving something like 35m in 2014, a significant drop from the 55m or so S4s sold in 2013.

I think the S6 will outsell the S4 and will drop off less over the full year simply due to the fact that the competition stumbled this year - though reaching 70m will be iffy.

 

[postmortemIA]

Samsung Android experience is the worst out of all big players. They have done all they can to replace stock experience with their customizations. These customizations are more miss than hit. After having Moto, HTC, Sony, LG, and Samsung devices, one is for sure: I won't touch another Samsung device until they get rid of their nasty skin and alternate apps, and go more stock Android approach.
Kudos to Moto and Sony for keeping their skins to minimal. It is easy to switch back and forth between these devices; settings and interface are almost exactly the same.
I wouldn't be surprised that Samsung suffers from lack of repeat customers.

 

[Brian Stirling]

Saturation of "good enough" hardware. Many people aren't going to upgrade until they have to.

It took the PC business 25-30 years to reach a saturation point where sales flatten or began to decline. It's taken the smartphone business less than 10 to reach that point.

In fairness, the larger Apple phones have stolen a big selling point for Android phones and in this first year of larger iPhones I'd guess a bunch of Android types switched to Apple.

The first 5 years or so of the smartphone business the capabilities were limited by the processing power, memory, storage and cellular data rates but they have now reached a point were the power is sufficient to do most anything needed of them. So yeah, good enough...


Brian

 

[elitejp]

the article is a little ridiculous the way I see it. In a one month time frame the 4,5 and 6 have sold the same amount. A few days difference between them but no big deal. In todays market where specs already surpass what a user could notice and the technology to produce a cheap midrange phone that offers basically the same user experience I will say that selling 10m isnt bad at all.

The final sentence
"All of which poses the obvious question: if Galaxy S6 Edge sales are performing above expectations, just how bad are Galaxy S6 sales?"
just doesnt make sense.

Does anyone actually expect a buyer to buy both phones? absolutely not. These two phones are essentially the same in every respect outside of the screen, so to me galaxy s6/s6 edge sales should be viewed as a single phone. People in the market for a s6 will be deciding between which one they prefer. Not, lets buy both.
The s6 is still one of the bets phones on the market, extremely fast and responsive with a great camera.
What I think is hurting samsung is the close to 1000usd sale price. Absolutely ridiculous and will definitely discourage many buyers.

 

[luv2liv]

i dont know what "normal" people do with a $600 or more phone. i see hs girls with the latest gen phones n they are still using it for the same thing that they were doing 4 years ago: fb, yt, txt, web, vids, and pix. they arent even using it to play the latest graphix intensive games.

i just got a $30 LG 70 from metropcs/t-mobie. no contract, pay $30 each month for unlimited voice/text/1gb of 4g speed and unlimited data of slow speed afterward. it's amazing what a $30 phone can do nowadays!

 

[StrangerGuy]

Saturation of "good enough" hardware. Many people aren't going to upgrade until they have to.

If you ask me Samsung is now stuck in an extremely uncomfortable position even while excluding Apple entirely. The old highend Note 3s and S4s are still massively overspecced devices for the average joe, yet at the low-end of things where hardware specs do matter for the user experience they are thoroughly decimated by Xiaomi/Moto etc.

My own anecdote survey of phones in public is a gazillion iPhones 6, Note 3s, S4s while I can count the number of S6s I seen with two fingers despite it being released for 2 months.

 

[KeithP]

the article is a little ridiculous the way I see it. In a one month time frame the 4,5 and 6 have sold the same amount. A few days difference between them but no big deal. In todays market where specs already surpass what a user could notice and the technology to produce a cheap midrange phone that offers basically the same user experience I will say that selling 10m isnt bad at all.

Given that the size of the market has grown considerably since the previous phones were released, selling the approximately same amount for a given time frame means they are selling fewer as a percentage of the rest of the market.

-KeithP

 

[elitejp]

the purchasing market is bigger but so are the manufacturers. its a tougher market.

 

[lxskllr]

It also depends on which way the market is expanding. If it's all towards the low end/third world(what I suspect, but don't know), a flagship phone won't get much additional share.

 

[Artdeco]

I knew something was up when I saw the BOGO sales and discounts to quickly, and Samsung likely "stuffed" the retail channel with as many phones as they could.

IMHO, normals are happy with the previous models, and if other stats are to be believed, Apple is stealing away high end customers.

And to be honest, a few days isn't that big of a deal, but Samsung is getting pressured on all sides, cheap phones, mid tier phones, and flagship phones.

They massively screwed up with the sealed phone and all that entails.

 

[poofyhairguy]

They massively screwed up with the sealed phone and all that entails.

I don't know if that conclusion can be made yet. We need to see what the sales look like at the end of the year. Maybe the early adopters (who buy on specs like removable parts) will be overcome by casual Christmas buyers who decide based on what the phone looks like.

Honestly I think the other conclusion is more valid: with a larger screen Apple is stealing the high end. The iPhone 6s and 6+s will be hard to recommend against unless someone cares about phone value. Samsung made a killing off of the "price isn't an issue" users for a while. Maybe they need jewel encrusted models sold for thousands to spice up that market.

 

[Artdeco]

I think the S6 will be perceived as too much of a knockoff, and consumers will buy an iPhone at the same or similar price points.

We shall see, that's the great thing about making predictions.

 

[Crono]

i dont know what "normal" people do with a $600 or more phone. i see hs girls with the latest gen phones n they are still using it for the same thing that they were doing 4 years ago: fb, yt, txt, web, vids, and pix. they arent even using it to play the latest graphix intensive games.

There are a few reasons "normal" people pay that much:
1) They expect to. The iPhone set the bar high for smartphones to begin with, and with contracts most people are only paying 1/3rd to 1/2 the price of the total cost up front (making it easy to keep up with Joneses). Other premium, flagship phones are priced to match or only slightly undercut Apple.

2) The camera. That's one area a $30 phone isn't going to match an iPhone 6/6 Plus, Galaxy S6, or LG G4. Smartphones are starting to approach perceived entry-level DSLR quality (or at least closer to high end point-and-shoot or mirrorless) at the flagship level. Photography is a huge part of social media, and even high school girls want phones that make it easy to take the highest quality pics possible.

3) Higher base storage. Not as important as the other two reasons, but the very low end phones usually have 8GB of storage or less, which isn't a lot. It's very easy to fill up 8GB (usually less than that after the OS eats up a portion) with pics (see reason 2) and apps. Only recently did flagship level phones start to push the base storage to 32GB, though.

 

[WelshBloke]

Samsung Android experience is the worst out of all big players. They have done all they can to replace stock experience with their customizations. These customizations are more miss than hit. After having Moto, HTC, Sony, LG, and Samsung devices, one is for sure: I won't touch another Samsung device until they get rid of their nasty skin and alternate apps, and go more stock Android approach.
Kudos to Moto and Sony for keeping their skins to minimal. It is easy to switch back and forth between these devices; settings and interface are almost exactly the same.
I wouldn't be surprised that Samsung suffers from lack of repeat customers.

Ah, that would be why HTC, Moto, LG, and Sony are kicking Samsung's arse in the marketplace then?

Also I wouldn't trust Forbes with Android news as far as I could spit.

 

[Commodus]

Yeah, it's important to remember that there's a big disjunction between what hardcore fans like and what actually sells. If tech forums actually reflected the broader public, then the Nexus line would dominate phone sales, everyone would root their devices, and Android would have a total monopoly.

Forbes isn't really the issue here, it's more Yonhap, the original source. Korean tech news outlets have a decidedly mixed reputation on news, even when they quote officials. This could be accurate, or complete bunk. We'll mostly know when Samsung releases its next earnings results. If its profits are still down significantly and mobile is largely to blame, we'll know that Samsung's attempt at a comeback didn't pan out.

 

[theeedude]

Considering what Zenfone 2 offers at $200, I can see best mass produced Android phones selling for $400, but $600 is wishful thinking. Android phones are commodity hardware in a mature market with low barriers to entry. Time to get real, Samsung.

 

[Graze]

Where does Android go from here?

What?

 

[ControlD]

Considering what Zenfone 2 offers at $200, I can see best mass produced Android phones selling for $400, but $600 is wishful thinking. Android phones are commodity hardware in a mature market with low barriers to entry. Time to get real, Samsung.

I don't know. I honestly don't know one single person (personally, forums are another matter) that pays full price for a cell phone. Not one. Almost everybody in the US market at least is paying the same $200 subsidized price for whatever flagship phone they fancy when their upgrade comes up. I would be interested to see what the numbers for the S6 are in the subsidized market. I have seen one person with a S6, but a ton with the iPhone 6.

 

[bradly1101]

This is what happens when you remove features.

 

[StrangerGuy]

I don't know. I honestly don't know one single person (personally, forums are another matter) that pays full price for a cell phone. Not one. Almost everybody in the US market at least is paying the same $200 subsidized price for whatever flagship phone they fancy when their upgrade comes up. I would be interested to see what the numbers for the S6 are in the subsidized market. I have seen one person with a S6, but a ton with the iPhone 6.

What does it matter if there are subsidies or not? At equivalent pricing the majority are still going for Apple, plain and simple. For one, better resale value down the line.

Even in poorer countries like China with a ton of vastly cheaper Android alternatives iPhone are still selling in record numbers.

 

[postmortemIA]

What does it matter if there are subsidies or not? At equivalent pricing the majority are still going for Apple, plain and simple. For one, better resale value down the line.

Even in poorer countries like China with a ton of vastly cheaper Android alternatives iPhone are still selling in record numbers.

Majority goes for an Android device. Apple is biggest seller among brands, but far from majority.
Everybody is selling in record numbers, it is just a spin. Apple made deal with China telcos last year, before that they were not sold by them. So of course that they sell in record numbers if previous year sales were 0.

So truth is this: Apple dominates premium market, where money is. Others fight in race to bottom, and money is not there.

 

[bradly1101]

I don't know. I honestly don't know one single person (personally, forums are another matter) that pays full price for a cell phone. Not one. Almost everybody in the US market at least is paying the same $200 subsidized price for whatever flagship phone they fancy when their upgrade comes up. I would be interested to see what the numbers for the S6 are in the subsidized market. I have seen one person with a S6, but a ton with the iPhone 6.

I pay full price, but only $40/mo. Believe me they cover the full retail price of the phone and a whole lot more in what you pay monthly.