Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Sales Figures Are Reportedly Vastly Underperforming Its Predecessors
Times are tough all around as the nation, and world, deal with the Coronavirus pandemic. Non-essential businesses are temporarily closing (some inevitably will never open back up), people are being encouraged to stay home and practice social distancing, and toilet paper is like gold. This is one of the reasons why Samsung is reportedly seeing far fewer Galaxy S20 sales than its previous flagship phones.
Smartphones are just not a top priority for consumers right now, not when grocery stores are struggling to keep sufficient stock of meats and canned goods, among other things. We will have to wait for Samsung to announce official sales figures, but the early indication is that sales of its latest flagship phone series is way below expectations.
That is according to Seoul Economic Daily, which says Samsung recently held a private conference call with investors. As the story goes, the takeaway is that Samsung has not revised its earnings forecast, but at least one securities analyst anticipates the "current sales volume of the S20 is 60 percent less than its predecessor, or even worse."
If such a figure comes to pass, it will not be indicative of the quality of the Galaxy S20 series. Indeed, in our review of the Galaxy S20+, we found it to be a big and bold tricked-out smartphone with a beautiful and fast display, top notch performance, great camera features, and exceptional battery life. It's obviously an expensive phone, though there are also cheaper options.
The situation is indicative of a larger trend. According to Strategy Analytics, global smartphone sales fell a staggering 39 percent month-over-month and 38 percent year-over-year in February "mainly due to the outbreak of COVID-19." The firm says the virus outbreak significantly disrupted the supply chain and depressed consumer demand.
"Global smartphone market posted a sharp fall this month blaming to the impact of the outbreak and spread of COVID in China and more countries. Samsung top both shipment and sales chart this month, followed by Apple, Xiaomi, Huawei, OPPO and Vivo by both shipment and sales volume," Strategy Analytics said.
The good news for Samsung and other smartphone makers is that his is a temporary situation. We just don't know exactly how long this will go on, unfortunately.
