Samsung Electronics sold 6 million Galaxy S6 devices by end-April: Counterpoint

NEW DELHI: In what signals to be a turnaround for Samsung in the premium smartphone category worldwide, its Galaxy S6 series have captured the No 3 and 4 spots within months of launch, trailing Apple’s flagship iPhone models, said analysts at Counterpoint Research.

The research agency tracked channel sales surveyed at major mass retailers, distributors across different markets for a global survey and found that Galaxy S6 was No 3 and the Galaxy S6 Edge had taken the No 4 position in terms of global sales rankings, with a total of 6 million units by April-end.

“The Galaxy S6 series was 21% of the Samsung’s total smartphone sales during April 2015 compared to Galaxy S5 which was only 16% of the Samsung’s smartphone sales in April 2014,” said the agency, which came out with top 10 smartphones in the world in Market Pulse report on Tuesday.

The standard Galaxy S6 sold slightly more than the S6 Edge. We believe this is about 60% of the units Samsung has shipped out of its factories. So 40% remain as inventory in the distribution channels which is not unusual for a new product in its first stages, it added.

Apple’s iPhone 6 series continued to generate healthy demand topping the list of world’s best-selling smartphones in April 2015. No 1 ranked Apple iPhone 6 series volumes grew 51% annually compared to last year’s iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. The iPhone 6 Plus was ranked No 2, though exact volumes were not shared.

Xiaomi’s Redmi 2 is the No 5 bestseller as it is the worthy successor of the most popular Redmi and the Redmi Note is also listed as the No.9 bestseller as it continues its progress in the phablet market.

Microsoft’s Lumia 435 entered the top 10 list for the first time during April as it saw healthy demand in key prepaid markets globally.

Smartphone shipments climbed to an all-time record of 342 million units for the March ending quarter, growing 16% on year, the agency had revealed in a separate report in April, with smartphone now represent 78% of all mobile phones shipped.

Samsung is No 1 smartphone maker with 83.3 million units shipped globally for the quarter ended March, followed by Apple at No 2 with 61.2 million units and Motorola combined with Lenovo at 22.2 million. Huawei and LG occupied No 4 and No 5 positions.

The Samsung Galaxy S6, launched on April 10th this year, has managed to exceed the sales of last year’s flagship Galaxy S5 in the same period in 2014. Only 20 countries were included in the initial roll-out of the Galaxy S6 compared to the 125 countries in which the Galaxy S5 launched last year.

Considering that fewer countries were in the initial product release, it has had a slower roll-out and lower marketing budget than the Galaxy S5, the Galaxy S6 series can be considered to be performing better than the Galaxy S5.

“The Samsung Galaxy S6 series has a chance to become the top selling smartphone overtaking Apple’s iPhone 6 series, if production issues are solved,” said Peter Richardson Research Director with Counterpoint.

However, the window of opportunity to do so is short as consumers don’t have much patience in a market with many alternatives. “We still believe Galaxy S6 is on its way to achieve 50 million unit sales by the end of this year,” Richardson added. The Galaxy S6 series is mostly cannibalizing other Android phones, including Samsung’s other flagship models. The Galaxy S5 sales dropped sharply compared to March. This was expected but the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy A-series were also affected as sales dropped between 30% and 40%.

This is a concern as Samsung’s overall market share is not growing despite the relatively successful launch of the Galaxy S6 in April, researchers at the agency said.