Samsung expects the newly announced Galaxy Note 9 will outsell its direct predecessor and remains optimistic about its overall 2018 prospects in the mobile industry, with its mobile chief DJ Koh recently also going on record to defend the disappointing sales of the Galaxy S9 series. Despite the fact that Samsung itself described the commercial performance of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus as “slow” and partially attributed that trend to its revenue decline recorded over the course of the second quarter of the year, Mr. Koh’s latest public appearance saw him defend the Android-powered duo, asserting that its sales haven’t been nearly as bad as some industry trackers suggested.
The Galaxy S9 even managed to outsell the widely successful Galaxy S8 line in select regions, the veteran executive said, without elaborating on the matter. Previous estimates suggested the Galaxy S9 family may be the most commercially unsuccessful generation of the Galaxy S series since the Galaxy S3 launched in mid-2012. While Samsung hasn’t attached any concrete figures to the two devices, their second-quarter sales were widely reported as being lower than their first-quarter performance despite the fact that they were only released over the final two weeks of Q1 2018, thus experiencing the largest momentum drop in the history of the mobile lineup. Mr. Koh still indicated he’s pleased with the overall performance of the handsets, claiming that the two devices have been selling six-percent better than their predecessors when comparing their first six-month periods of global commercial availability.
Nonetheless, Samsung‘s latest consolidated financial report directly stated that the company opted to move the Galaxy Note 9’s launch ahead of schedule due to the Galaxy S9 line, i.e. the fact that the latter wasn’t selling as well as it hoped. The Galaxy Note 9 is currently available for pre-orders in most parts of the world and will be released globally on August 24, starting at around $999, depending on the market.