There is a lot riding on the commercial success of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. Samsung Mobile has been struggling with poorer sales and slipping market share after the launch of the Galaxy S4 and especially the Galaxy S5. The Galaxy S6 represents something of a departure from the Galaxy S4 and S5, which were derivative; the S6 introduced a brand new in-house System-on-Chip (SoC), the Exynos 7420, plus a new higher performance memory module. It also contained a sealed battery and no MicroSD slot, both firsts for the flagship Galaxy S line. The Galaxy S was generally well received by both the press and Samsung’s marketing budget has pushed the new S6 and S6 Edge into the public’s face. And now, we sit back and wait to see what the sales are like.
We’ve seen rumors within the market that customers have not flocked to the Galaxy S6 as Samsung was hoping and that the handset has not stopped the decline in market share. However, a senior Samsung Electronics executive said on the weekend that both the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are selling well: “Sales of the S6 and S6 Edge are meeting our internal target. S6 sales will clearly be higher than those of the S5. Samsung will aggressively promote sales in our target markets.” The executive did not wish to be named and a Samsung spokesperson in Seoul refused to comment on the sales figures other than to explain that the company is expected to unveil sales figures at the investor relations forum happening on Wednesday, 3 June 2015. These unofficial remarks from a senior figure at Samsung follow comments from Samsung Electronics Corporate Affairs President, Park Sang-jin, who explained to reporters about sales figures: “You have to wait and see; however, the S6 and S6 Edge sales will be far higher than those of the S5.”
We don’t have long to wait until a better understanding of the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge sales momentum, but research firm eBest have estimated that an average of 305,000 Galaxy S6 models are being sold daily, which compares well with 124,000 for the Galaxy S5 and 241,000 for the Galaxy S4. We have also seen a Samsung executive confirm that the business has no plans to release the next Galaxy Note device early, which had been rumored. This points towards the business wishing to keep the focus on the Galaxy S6 models until the next Note, presumably the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, is announced later in the year.