Initial pre-orders of the Samsung Galaxy S9 are proving to be disappointing in Samsung’s home turf of South Korea, a new report claims.
The new handset was only made available for pre-order on Wednesday, but — at least in the first few hours — initial demand seems not to be matching that of last year’s handset. Samsung itself has not yet revealed any figures.
“There are many customers asking about the phones but the actual number of preorders seems to be a tad smaller compared to last year,” said an employee of one local mobile operator. Market watchers say that both the S9 and larger S9+, along with LG’s new V30S ThinQ, underperformed on expectations.
Granted, it is still very early days for Samsung’s new handset, but it’s not good if true. It would also be disappointing to Samsung due to the massive numbers of pre-orders the iPhone X received in South Korea.
A whole new Galaxy
Samsung debuted its new handset at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week. During the unveiling, Samsung took shots at Apple for including a “notch” on its iPhone X, a feature that many Android manufacturers are now ripping off to try and look more like Apple’s flagship handset.
You can read a Cult of Mac comparison post about the S9 versus the iPhone X here. A recent Speedometer 2.0 OS WebView benchmark test suggests that not only does the new iPhone X outperform the new Samsung flagship devices, but even the 18-month-old iPhone 7 does.
It’s interesting to note that the iPhone X is widely reported to have disappointed in terms of sales. If Samsung’s new handsets do the same, it could suggest new challenges for high-end smartphones’ continued growth — particularly as the handsets get more mature and therefore offer fewer major upgrades with each passing year.
Source: Yonhapnews
