For a whole year, the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge were the two flagships that Samsung relied on, after the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco from last fall. Samsung recorded major financial loss and its overall brand image was affected in the eyes of all consumers.
But the company seems to have handled the situation quite impressively, as the latest sales report reveals. Market research firm Strategic Analytics revealed that the combined sales of the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge surpassed 55 million units at the end of the first quarter.
From January and until March this year, Samsung managed to sell 7.2 million units of the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, which is quite an impressive number. This means that 7.2 million people decided not to wait for the Galaxy S8 and S8+, but rather go ahead and purchase last year’s flagship.
That doesn’t mean that the Galaxy S8 and S8+ weren’t well received on the market; the two devices managed to surpass pre-order figures for the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy Note 7, with more than 1 million people from Korea placing pre-orders for the new phones.
It’s also worth mentioning that price adjustments and promotions for the Galaxy S7 conducted during the Q1 also contributed to an increase in sales, as it sometimes occurs before and after a new flagship is released.
The report also reveals that Samsung’s total smartphone shipments in the first quarter of this year accounted for 23% of the worldwide smartphone market, reaching 92.8 million units. Samsung is rapidly recovering, after selling 77.5 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of last year, fewer than Apple’s 78.3 million units.
However, Samsung seems to be doing much better than Apple in terms of flagship sales, only 51.6 million iPhone 7 units were sold during the first quarter. Tomorrow, Apple will officially release sales for the quarter, together with other detailed information.
