Samsung’s high-end smartphone sales are dwindling, according to a new report from Hana Financial Investment passed along by South Korea’s The Investor. Data shows that Samsung Electronics’ high-end smartphone sales figures have taken a hit in Q1 2017, as the company’s premium smartphones accounted for only 29% of the company’s entire smartphone portfolio in the aforementioned timeframe. This is the first time for the company’s high-end smartphones to account for less than 30% of sales.
According to Hana Financial Investment, back in Q2 2013 when the Korean tech giant was releasing the Samsung Galaxy S4 flagship, the company’s high-end smartphones topped an impressive 75% of all smartphone sales. Since then the figure continued to drop gradually and in 2015 the company’s high-end smartphone segment accounted for less than 40% of all smartphone sales. Samsung’s premium segment also lost ground in the first quarter of 2017, as its high-end mobile segment covered only 29% of all smartphone sales in the given period of time. However, these results are not all that surprising given the fact that the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was short-lived and discontinued roughly two months after its debut in August of 2016, costing the company a great deal of money and resources. With that being said and depending on the success of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8 series, the Korean tech giant’s high-end smartphone segment could bounce back up and surpass the 30% mark once again in the second quarter of 2017. The Samsung Galaxy S8 will be officially unveiled in New York later this week.
In addition to the company’s high-end segment losing ground, a new report from Strategy Analytics indicates that all the smartphones sold by Samsung globally throughout 2016 add up to an average price per unit of $232 USD, representing a 19.5% decrease from a year earlier when Samsung’s smartphones recorded an average price of $289 USD. Once again, this decrease could also be attributed to the prematurely-retired Samsung Galaxy Note 7 whose cancellation may have offset sales figures and led to fewer premium Samsung devices being sold in the latter part of 2016 and the beginning of 2017. In contrast, Apple – one of Samsung’s biggest rivals – recorded a 7% increase in the average price of its smartphones throughout 2016, up to $645 per unit sold. However, it should be noted that Apple is primarily focusing on the high-end market, with its only mid-range offering being the iPhone SE with a price tag of $399.