Forbes calls S6 sales so far "Disastrous"

[planoman]

Something is fishy here...I thought I had heard initial reports that were impressive for the s6/s6zEdge...will have to wait on official Samsung financial results for the next quarter to really know.

I know it is really doing well in my house! lol My wife and I both have an S6 right now. First time I can recall having the same phone. She upgraded from an S3. I unlocked my att model and would have given it to her but she wanted her own on T mobile.

 

[jcp007]

Something is fishy here...I thought I had heard initial reports that were impressive for the s6/s6zEdge...will have to wait on official Samsung financial results for the next quarter to really know.

I know it is really doing well in my house! lol My wife and I both have an S6 right now. First time I can recall having the same phone. She upgraded from an S3. I unlocked my att model and would have given it to her but she wanted her own on T mobile.

Funny you mention the family thing, my wife is due for an upgrade soon. My son told me not to get the i6s because a couple of his friends have had the bent i6. Could be another GS6 in our future.

 

[Kalvin Kerns]

Funny you mention the family thing, my wife is due for an upgrade soon. My son told me not to get the i6s because a couple of his friends have had the bent i6. Could be another GS6 in our future.

Good deal. I couldn't pay my wife to go Android lol.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[thoots]

"Disastrous" my rear end. Someone has to put a LITTLE perspective into these things. Do people run out and buy new big-screen TV sets every time a new model comes out? Of course not. Do people run out and buy new notebook computers every time a new model comes out? Of course not.

At some point in time, the smartphone technology essentially matures to the point where there just plain aren't enough "got to have it" features in new phones to make vast sums of people to void their contracts and spend a whole bunch of extra money "just to have the latest, greatest" phone. And I sure think we have reached that point. Of course, the exception is Apple, which has cultivated a cult-like response to its new products, and perhaps that's why they are swimming in profits. Still, "normal" human beings often tend to have some intellect and financial responsibility, and just aren't going to go standing outside a store for three days just be the first to get a new cell phone.

I expect the S6 to be a sales success, but it just might not get the kind of nonsensical reaction that Apple fanatics like Forbes might think are necessary for a new consumer product in the current market. Plus, Samsung is covering the market a bit more broadly than they have before -- if you want to trade a slim, trim, stylish phone for one with a replaceable battery and a MicroSD card, and live with the extra bulk needed for those features, Samsung will still have a phone to sell you.

And so on. I think the Forbes article is just a bunch of malarkey.

 

[jcp007]

"Disastrous" my rear end. Someone has to put a LITTLE perspective into these things. Do people run out and buy new big-screen TV sets every time a new model comes out? Of course not. Do people run out and buy new notebook computers every time a new model comes out? Of course not.

At some point in time, the smartphone technology essentially matures to the point where there just plain aren't enough "got to have it" features in new phones to make vast sums of people to void their contracts and spend a whole bunch of extra money "just to have the latest, greatest" phone. And I sure think we have reached that point. Of course, the exception is Apple, which has cultivated a cult-like response to its new products, and perhaps that's why they are swimming in profits. Still, "normal" human beings often tend to have some intellect and financial responsibility, and just aren't going to go standing outside a store for three days just be the first to get a new cell phone.

I expect the S6 to be a sales success, but it just might not get the kind of nonsensical reaction that Apple fanatics like Forbes might think are necessary for a new consumer product in the current market. Plus, Samsung is covering the market a bit more broadly than they have before -- if you want to trade a slim, trim, stylish phone for one with a replaceable battery and a MicroSD card, and live with the extra bulk needed for those features, Samsung will still have a phone to sell you.

And so on. I think the Forbes article is just a bunch of malarkey.

Also, consider that the Active is AT&T exclusive in the US.

 

[Techno-guy]

"Disastrous" my rear end. Someone has to put a LITTLE perspective into these things. Do people run out and buy new big-screen TV sets every time a new model comes out? Of course not. Do people run out and buy new notebook computers every time a new model comes out? Of course not.

At some point in time, the smartphone technology essentially matures to the point where there just plain aren't enough "got to have it" features in new phones to make vast sums of people to void their contracts and spend a whole bunch of extra money "just to have the latest, greatest" phone. And I sure think we have reached that point. Of course, the exception is Apple, which has cultivated a cult-like response to its new products, and perhaps that's why they are swimming in profits. Still, "normal" human beings often tend to have some intellect and financial responsibility, and just aren't going to go standing outside a store for three days just be the first to get a new cell phone.

I expect the S6 to be a sales success, but it just might not get the kind of nonsensical reaction that Apple fanatics like Forbes might think are necessary for a new consumer product in the current market. Plus, Samsung is covering the market a bit more broadly than they have before -- if you want to trade a slim, trim, stylish phone for one with a replaceable battery and a MicroSD card, and live with the extra bulk needed for those features, Samsung will still have a phone to sell you.

And so on. I think the Forbes article is just a bunch of malarkey.

Well, we'll know for sure once Samsung releases sales numbers but numbers are in for the Chinese market (the biggest cell market in the world with 100 million sales per quarter) and according to the Business Insider article, Samsung's sales dropped 53% year over year (from 20.5 million sold to 9.6 million sold) in Q1. That's a Blackberry type of drop and something for any company to panic about. In the same period, Apple grew 62% to overtake a once dominant Samsung in China to become the market leader.

So, I'm not sure I agree that the worldwide cell market is a mature market yet (it's still in fairly hyper growth everywhere except for Europe and the U.S.) but you definitely have to sell the right phones to the right customers and there is growing skepticism about the S6 being able to save Samsung's recent cell division challenges in the investment community.

 

[hemant#IM]

Well, we'll know for sure once Samsung releases sales numbers but numbers are in for the Chinese market (the biggest cell market in the world with 100 million sales per quarter) and according to the Business Insider article, Samsung's sales dropped 53% year over year (from 20.5 million sold to 9.6 million sold) in Q1. That's a Blackberry type of drop and something for any company to panic about. In the same period, Apple grew 62% to overtake a once dominant Samsung in China to become the market leader.

So, I'm not sure I agree that the worldwide cell market is a mature market yet (it's still in fairly hyper growth everywhere except for Europe and the U.S.) but you definitely have to sell the right phones to the right customers and there is growing skepticism about the S6 being able to save Samsung's recent cell division challenges in the investment community.

Well in China apple has become like a status symbol where not only the rich flaunt it but also people with lesser disposable income. In most cases iPhone are almost a month salary here and people won't mind spending it to tell others that they do have iPhone. Rich here are just nonsense since they spend money like no tomorrow.

Having Said that I am yet to see s6 in wild apart from me. In Hong Kong too which traditionally accepts new phones with great gusto haven't responded yet to s6 as much as Sammy would want too. My colleague's cousin who works in telco said the demand was lacking due to absence of Sd card and removable battery.

I still though feel this is the best phone and just need some improvement in battery. And hoping Samsung posts great results.

 

[GibMcFragger]

There was a report quoting a Samsung official stating that sales of the gs6 had surpassed 10 million shipped mark. I think it was from Sammoblie. So I will also take the wait and see approach instead of jumping to conclusions. Google has been releasing phones for awhile now without removable battery or sd-card support and no ones says Samsung copied them. As a matter of fact lots of people were bemoaning Samsung for the continued use of sd-card support. I very much like my gs6 and i'm enjoying my phone

The thing with using the word "shipped" when quoting sales, is that it includes all phones shipped to retailers, etc. They may be unsold and collecting dust on the shelves of said retailers, so shipped isn't an accurate representation. That's why they use it. It makes the numbers sounds better than they are.

Posted via my Rooted LG G3 running DeneROM.

 

[donm527]

If you believe the business insider article than s6 sales are below s5 sales.

If you believe the bgr article below that from Apples monstrous holiday quarter that 80% of those phones came from new buyers and not existing owners then it not hard to believe that those millions have to come from potential s6 buyers. 50% from other brands. And companies like LG reported increased sales from previous years so you know they and other companies are eating samsungs lunch too.

iPhone 6 vs. Samsung: Android sales significantly affected by Apple | BGR

Halfway thru 2015, everywhere I go in south Florida... iPhone 6

I'm not currently an iPhone fan. From my iPhone 1, 3GS, 4s, I went nexus 4, lg g2 and lg G3... Nothing wrong with the iPhone 6 Imo but I'm happy with android. Loved the s6 when it came out and drooled over the new body and screen but the battery size is a deal breaker. Imo, number of mah matter and if they could get similar life compared to a 3000mah on a G3, then they should have put in a 3000 mah to put an exclamation point to make the s6 second to none.

But If I was going for a new phone, I think. I'd go with the G4 because, both being so close, battery wins it for me.

Well if it ends up selling more than the S5, then I wouldn't call it a flop.

I don't know what Samsung's sale estimates are, or whether they have reached them, but if it's outsold the S5 then that's at least a step in the right direction to getting their mobile profits up again.

 

[Bwahahahaha]

I wouldn't put much stock into this article. Forbes seems to lean towards Apple.

Posted via the Android Central App

Yep, this^^

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[t11rmh]

Well, I considered a S6 before launch as I had a S5 which was due for upgrade. But I went for a Note4 which I am very happy with.

I do think the S6 and S6 edge are great phones but they are not for me as my main phone.

So whilst I have been with the Samsung S series of phones from the first one the design changes of the S6 alienated me.

So maybe more people do care about removal battery and expandable storage than the mobile phone press think.

Saying all of this I do have a spare phone also which I recently upgraded from a S5 mini to an A5. So I might get a S6 next year as a spare to my Note5 or S7. I need expandable storage for reasons I am not going to go into again.

If sales are as bad as reported then Samsung will have to think about what it's customers want again and hopefully get it right on the S7 and also they must not alienate their Note consumers by changing too much with that line.

Interesting times ahead for Samsung.....

Posted via a kicking Note4 on Lollipop.

 

[Owen Kim]

I know some people get 5+ hours SOT, but the masses typically use out of the box, without disabling and making necessary tweaks to achieve decent battery life. So unfortunately this phone does have the reputation of bad battery life (again, amongst the masses).

also, for the past 5 years, people that care most about aesthetics have migrated toward iPhone, and that's a tough consumer base to lure away.

and as much as S6 owners say removable battery and SD cards don't matter, clearly that's not a popular opinion amongst android fans.

I think a lot of people are waiting for the G4. the specs might lean toward the S6, but most people aren't fooled by spec tests, and realize it doesn't equate into real world use. they're similar phones, but the G4 has a removable, bigger battery, and the SD card, which is a lot cheaper than having to upgrade to 64-128 on the S6. I also think some people are turned off by the rear glass and thinness, knowing a case will cover one of its best attributes.

it's also possible the iPhone 6+ took some potential consumers, including android users.

I'll take the article with a grain of salt, but if this is true, hopefully it means if Samsung planned the same strategy for the Note 5, they'll rethink it.

finally, I think people don't see much value in trading in their phone ever 24 months, as upgrades are less significant than they were a few years ago. if I'm an S4 owner, and I just got lollipop, the camera is really the biggest upgrade, and that might not be worth it for some people. personally, I have an S4, and it's running just fine. I average just over 5 hours SOT and would rather have the removable battery than a better camera. Maybe it's cause I've never had it, but wireless charging isn't important to me. My wire is concealed and rests on my nightstand, and I charge it when I go to bed. I don't need quick charge cause I can just slap in a new battery.

The G4, I still get a great camera, plus I don't have to give up the removable battery, so if I upgrade, I'd choose it over the S6.

Again, I've seen Forbes say some things about the S6 that I disagree with, so I'll hold off on both Samsung's numbers and the G4's numbers before declaring this as complete fact. I do think they're is some truth to it though, but we'll find out for sure soon enough.

Posted via the Android Central App

Thr g4 has worst batter than s6. But yeah it is removable

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

Re: Forbes calls S6 sales so far "Disastrous"

If you believe the business insider article than s6 sales are below s5 sales.

If you believe the bgr article below that from Apples monstrous holiday quarter that 80% of those phones came from new buyers and not existing owners then it not hard to believe that those millions have to come from potential s6 buyers. 50% from other brands. And companies like LG reported increased sales from previous years so you know they and other companies are eating samsungs lunch too.

iPhone 6 vs. Samsung: Android sales significantly affected by Apple | BGR

Halfway thru 2015, everywhere I go in south Florida... iPhone 6

I'm not currently an iPhone fan. From my iPhone 1, 3GS, 4s, I went nexus 4, lg g2 and lg G3... Nothing wrong with the iPhone 6 Imo but I'm happy with android. Loved the s6 when it came out and drooled over the new body and screen but the battery size is a deal breaker. Imo, number of mah matter and if they could get similar life compared to a 3000mah on a G3, then they should have put in a 3000 mah to put an exclamation point to make the s6 second to none.

But If I was going for a new phone, I think. I'd go with the G4 because, both being so close, battery wins it for me.

Interesting article.

I didn't know such a large portion of iPhone 6 buyers were new buyers.

I think a lot of consumers were waiting for a large screened iPhone, and Apple smashed it out of the ballpark with the iP6 and 6+, hence the astronomical sales and profits. Samsung can't get close to that, but I thought the S6 would have sold better than the S5. But maybe it was too little too late from Samsung and Apple just made the necessary changes to grab the high end customers.

As far as a flop though, I'm still weary of throwing that term around until we get official numbers from Samsung. And it depends on were you set the bar for what a flop means. Does it mean selling less than the S5 or does it mean not selling say 70 million units in the year, etc. Samsung would be the ones who determine whether the phone was a flop or not, though if it was a flop, they'd never express that to the public.

I do think though that they're bleeding from both ends. Apple very clearly is dominating the high end market for smart phones and Chinese companies are coming up with really compelling mid and low end phones which are also hurting Samsung. So it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

Also I'm with you on the G4. I think I'll be jumping ship from the S6 to the G4. Just seems like an over all better package to me. If the G4 was announced at MWC along with the S6, I doubt I would have gotten the S6.

So maybe more people do care about removal battery and expandable storage than the mobile phone press think.

Hmm I'd disagree with that. I think its a smaller segment if the market that actually care passionately about those features. If it were very important to smartphone consumers, then the iPhone wouldn't have been as successful as it is. 6 and 6+ in particular, with their crazy sales only reiterate to me that these little features that android phones tend to have don't really play a major part in the purchasing decisions of consumers.

Thr g4 has worst batter than s6. But yeah it is removable

Posted via the Android Central App

I've been reading the &G4 has better battery life than the S6. And on top of that, early adopters will be getting an extra battery and charging cradle so they'll have plenty of juice.

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

Re: Forbes calls S6 sales so far "Disastrous"

Doing a bit of research....might look like the S6 wasn't doing as crash hot as I thought it was.

Galaxy S5 supposedly sold 11 million units in its first month: Samsung reports it has sold 11M Galaxy S5 since launch - CNET
Galaxy S6 & 6E supposedly ships a combined 10 million units in its first month: Global shipments of Galaxy S6 series top 10 mln

So looks it's it's gone from 11 million sales of the S5 to only 10 million shipped of the S6/6E in the first months of release respectively. Might be troubling for Samsung. Maybe the iPhoen 6 has done too much damage already. What did they sell? 10 million in a weekend?

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

"Disastrous" my rear end. Someone has to put a LITTLE perspective into these things. Do people run out and buy new big-screen TV sets every time a new model comes out? Of course not. Do people run out and buy new notebook computers every time a new model comes out? Of course not.

At some point in time, the smartphone technology essentially matures to the point where there just plain aren't enough "got to have it" features in new phones to make vast sums of people to void their contracts and spend a whole bunch of extra money "just to have the latest, greatest" phone. And I sure think we have reached that point. Of course, the exception is Apple, which has cultivated a cult-like response to its new products, and perhaps that's why they are swimming in profits. Still, "normal" human beings often tend to have some intellect and financial responsibility, and just aren't going to go standing outside a store for three days just be the first to get a new cell phone.

I expect the S6 to be a sales success, but it just might not get the kind of nonsensical reaction that Apple fanatics like Forbes might think are necessary for a new consumer product in the current market. Plus, Samsung is covering the market a bit more broadly than they have before -- if you want to trade a slim, trim, stylish phone for one with a replaceable battery and a MicroSD card, and live with the extra bulk needed for those features, Samsung will still have a phone to sell you.

And so on. I think the Forbes article is just a bunch of malarkey.

Corporations expect increased sales of their devices year on year. Samsung executives and shareholders expect the next Galaxy flagship to outsell the previous one. That's how businesses function. If the S6 doesn't manage to sell more than the S5, then that's a failure on Samsung's part.

And you mentioned yourself Apple's success. They have managed to increase sales of their iPhones year on year, and their latest offerings are eating into Android phone sales - not good for Samsung/LG/Sony/HTC etc.

The S6 doesn't have to reach iPhone 6 sales (and it won't), but it should at the very least outsell the Galaxy S5, which should have outsold the S4, which should have outsold the S3 etc etc.

 

[hemant#IM]

Re: Forbes calls S6 sales so far "Disastrous"

I think smartphone market has reached saturation point too and its just that apple is crushing everyone. In the far east asian countries people prefer to buy iPhone than any brand if they are same priced. They think for the price I better buy iPhone than others and it looks hip too.

 

[neiljay6]

The thing with using the word "shipped" when quoting sales, is that it includes all phones shipped to retailers, etc. They may be unsold and collecting dust on the shelves of said retailers, so shipped isn't an accurate representation. That's why they use it. It makes the numbers sounds better than they are.

Posted via my Rooted LG G3 running DeneROM.

Yes that's very true. But this is how Samsung mostly report their numbers. Its not the most accurate, but they have been consistent with reporting like this so we can make a pretty good comparison between s6 sales and previous flag ship sales. The fact of the matter is though. The iphone is crushing everyone. HTC also reporting lower than expected sales, And while the LG G4 is a great phone I don't think it will sell all that well either. Apple is destroying most brands the world over and most recently in China. Even the native ones. People are buying iphones in droves, and I guess I cant blame them, its a good phone. Still happy with my s6 though It rocks!

 

[craigrn16]

I personally see a lot of people I know that had a Samsung before now have iPhone 6+ and the people who I see who still own a Samsung phone it's either a Note 4 or they still own a Galaxy S5. I'm like the only one with a Galaxy S6. So I'm not surprised with these findings. I wish people would try the S6 because it's a great phone. Samsung finally knocks it out the park and no one is buying it

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

Yes that very true. But this is how Samsung mostly report their numbers. Its not the most accurate, but they have been consistent with reporting like this so we can make a pretty good comparison between s6 sales and previous flag ship sales.

It's actually kind of confusing to get the right info about sold vs shipped.

Here, an official Samsung the website claims the Galaxy S4 as 10 million sold in the first month: http://global.samsungtomorrow.com/samsung-galaxy-s4-hits-10-million-milestone-in-first-month/

But if you watch that YouTube clip on the page, it says 10 million shipped...

Then JK Shin told WSJ that the S5 sold 11 million units: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles...0001424052702304908304579561920434884250.html

I can't seem to find links (or anything official from Samsung) who say that's shipped units and not sold.

But now with the S6, word is getting out that it's 10 million shipped, not sure of how many sold.

My guess is that the S6 has sold less than the S5 and possibly the S4 in the first month, which would be pretty disappointing for Samsung.

Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk

 

[atishc]

It's hard to jibe a couple of the early reports with these sales figures:
Samsung now expects to sell 70 million Galaxy S6 and S6 edge smartphones
Samsung reportedly opens third factory to meet demand for Galaxy S6 edge | Android Central

My guess is that there was a huge demand for the edge version among the early adopter crowd in Western markets that drove these early projections, but much of the rest of the world may not see the value of the price premium of the S6 and particularly the edge. All the reports I have seen about disappointing S6 sales come from Japan, Korea and China, and there Samsung has major issues that may just not be fixable by making superior products - i.e. they don't have the brand cachet like Apple to be charging more for a similarly spec'ed device as Lenovo/Huawei/Xiaomi/Oppo, but at the same time it would be very hard for them to compete on price.

I thought the S5 was an outstanding device with a couple flaws, but the tech press hated it, so Samsung created a product that the tech press is eating up. In so doing, it lost many of the great and distinguishing features of the S5. I posited at the time that it was unclear to me that such a strategy would actually help improve global sales because many of these market forces are independent of the actual product. All that being said, I am loving my edge and I am not a Samsung stock holder, so it doesn't matter to me how Samsung is doing in Asia - though I do want Samsung to continue to do well in general if only to drive development of apps, cases, etc. etc.