While not on the level of Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus pre-orders, Samsung has reported that it has received about 20 million pre-orders for its next flagship smartphones. According to Samsung president JK Shin, the company has received about 15 million Galaxy S6 and 5 million S6 Edge pre-orders from mobile carriers worldwide.
This represents more pre-orders than any other Samsung handset and a new record for pre-orders, though it should be noted that the orders are going to carriers and may not reflect the number of units that will be in the hands of customers on opening day. For context, the wildly successful iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which sold over 70 million units in the three months after launch, only had around 4 million units sold (in the hands of consumers) on opening weekend.
Based on this and other information, Citibank analyst Henry Kim has stated that he expects Samsung to ship 46 million Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge handsets this year, up from his previous estimate of 38 million. Samsung itself has increased its production target for the smartphones to about 13 million units (about 9 million for S6, and 4 million for S6 Edge) through April.
While the number of handsets to be produced is in line with the production numbers of the company’s last flagship, the S5 was a relatively sales disappointment. Early indications are that the S6 and S6 Edge may have more success.
Production may lag orders to a degree. First, the Samsung-built Exynos 14nm SoC that powers the phones may not be able to be produced in sufficient quantity after Samsung (allegedly) dropped Qualcomm as an SoC supplier. Second, according to Ars Technica, the curved screen of the S6 Edge may suffer from yield issues because of the new manufacturing process involved. As the report notes, that should be ironed out as time goes on, but may restrict the number of Galaxy S6 Edge phones on the market some time after launch.
Nevertheless, the pre-order numbers look good enough for accessory manufacturers and buyers to take comfort. For that matter, Samsung, despite losing significant market share to Apple, Xiaomi, and other manufacturers in the past year, remains the largest global smartphone manufacturer.
Source: Mobile Electronics
