Samsung shipped 16 million Galaxy S10 units last quarter, with the Galaxy S10+ being the most popular model. Which should surprise absolutely no one.
This data comes from Counterpoint Research, and it includes the three main Galaxy S10 models – Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+. It does not include the Galaxy S10 5G, since that only started shipping in the past few weeks, and is also a very limited device, in just a handful of markets.
The Galaxy S10+ represents roughly 42-percent of the 16 million units shipped last quarter (that’s April through June). With the Galaxy S10 coming in at 32-percent and the Galaxy S10e coming in at 22-percent. These numbers are a bit surprising, the Galaxy S10+ was expected to be the most popular, but many thought that the Galaxy S10e would be more popular, seeing as it was cheaper, but not really a “lesser” phone compared to the other two.
Still, 22-percent or about 3.5 million units, is nothing to sneeze at. But many of us, including myself, believed that most people would get the Galaxy S10e, due to the price. Coming in at $749, a full $150 cheaper than the Galaxy S10 and the only real difference was the telephoto sensor being removed and a flat display over a curved one.
What really matters to Samsung is, selling more than the Galaxy S9 did at the same time last year. The Galaxy S9 was not a super popular smartphone, as Samsung had expected it to be. It still sold boatloads, because it was a Samsung smartphone, but sales were not up to Samsung’s expectations. In the same period in 2018, the Galaxy S9 duo shipped around 14.3 million units. That means that the Galaxy S10 shipped about 12-percent more units in the same time period.
The Galaxy S10 did launch and start shipping ahead of the Galaxy S9, however, this was for the second quarter which started in April. So it is still a mostly apples to apples comparison here, fortunately.
Samsung did take some risks with the Galaxy S10 this year. Launching more models than it ever has in the past (a whopping four different models!), and also going with a hole-punch display. Something it hadn’t done before, as it did not embrace the notch, and instead kept a pretty minimal bezel at the top of its smartphones. These risks have appeared to pay off for Samsung though, which is good to see. Customers have embraced that hole-punch – even getting creative with wallpapers – and are upgrading to the new Galaxy S10 smartphones.
Some might say that the reason for the Galaxy S10 shipping more than the Galaxy S9, is due to the promotions that Samsung offered for the Galaxy S10. Samsung was a lot more aggressive this year when the Galaxy S10 launched, in trying to get more and more users onto the Galaxy S10 sooner. Offering up to $600 off with trade-ins and even some pretty impressive buy one, get one free offers through carriers.
Either way, it looks like the Galaxy S10 line was a success for Samsung, and hopefully the Galaxy Note10 line will continue that for Samsung next month.