Samsung hasn’t seen the sales numbers it expected from the Galaxy S20 series, and it is now blaming the Coronavirus for those low numbers.
While the Galaxy S20 series hasn’t gone on sale in the US yet – that’s happening next Friday – it is on sale in its home country of South Korea. Where the company sold 70,800 units on the first day. Which lags very far behind previous launches. The Galaxy S10 hit 140,000 units on the first day, so the Galaxy S20 is literally doing half of what the Galaxy S10 did.
But the Galaxy Note 10 did even better with 220,000 units sold on the first day.
Samsung believes the Coronavirus is keeping people at home
And thus, not going out to buy the device.
With the Coronavirus being a big topic right now, a lot of people aren’t leaving their homes, and Samsung believes that is why the Galaxy S20 isn’t selling as well as it had expected.
In fact, the Korea Herald has also reported that “sales were affected by sharp declines in discounts for new phones and the number of visitors to offline stores due to coronavirus infection fears.”
Coronavirus has spread to South Korea, so it is a valid concern now. Currently, South Korea has the second highest number of cases of the disease, outside of China. In fact, today alone, there were over 250 new cases reported in South Korea. So everyone staying home isn’t a big surprise, but it does mean that Samsung and other companies won’t be selling as many products right now.
Samsung’s not happy with these sales numbers
They are being called “dismal”.
Samsung was expecting that the Galaxy S20 would be selling really well for the company, seeing as it listened to consumers and did everything consumers wanted. Even though they are a bit expensive, starting at $999 and going up to $1599. But, Samsung of course, couldn’t have seen the Coronavirus epidemic on the horizon. Especially in its home country of South Korea.
These are just early numbers though, and for only one country. It’s likely that when it launches in the US, that the Galaxy S20 series will sell fairly well. Many have pre-ordered and will get their units next week. And the Coronavirus isn’t as big of a threat in the US just yet. Though, according to the CDC, that is going to change and likely change pretty quickly.
Compared to its competitors though, over 70k units sold in a single day in a single country, is not bad at all. Many of its competitors would kill for those numbers.