Galaxy S5 sold 40 percent fewer units than Samsung predicted

Phones said to “pile up in warehouses”

Just when Samsung had released its Galaxy S5, we all had this one question nagging behind our minds; would people really go for the S5 right away or would they rather wait till they see how the iPhone 6 looks like and then make their decision? As it turned out, this is exactly what happened in the real world. The Galaxy S5 didn’t quite come out at the right time because competing head on with Apple is definitely not something ordinary.

Samsung, which was already not having a nice time with its financials, didn’t quite meet up its target of selling the Galaxy S5. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Samsung’s Galaxy S5 flagship phone has performed below expectations and within the first three months of going on sale, it managed to gain sales of 12 million units. This sales figure is approximately 4 million lesser than what the S4 managed to get and it puts the sales projection down by 40 percent. In China, the sales came down at 50 percent and the US was the only market where the sales managed to be on the gaining side. This isn’t surprising considering that the US serves as the largest market for the Korean giant.

Apparently the company overestimated how much stock would be needed, leading to an increased advertising spend to get rid of units that were “piling up in warehouses.” We are all aware that Samsung has been reporting plummeting profits and revenue and a month earlier it declared that it would “fundamentally reform” its smartphone portfolio.

The report from The Wall Street Journal has also cited a couple of sources who have claimed that Samsung is considering some changes at the executive level. The mobile chief co-CEO JK Shin is possibly ceding his role to fellow co-CEO in charge of TVs and appliances but for what we know, these could merely be rumors as nothing has been finalized as yet.

source: theverge