Analysts: Samsung's sales of high-end phones at their lowest levels yet

27 March 2017
Samsung's B and C teams had to save the day after the Galaxy Note7 dropped the ball.

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  • AnonD-507785
  • nCi
  • 27 Mar 2017

Anonymous, 27 Mar 2017S4 was the biggest difference than any previous galaxy. The... moreThose were just small upgrades in basically same case. I owned S3 and wanted to upgrade to S4, but it looked like a waste of money at the time. Not just to me, but to other people too. Sure, it was an upgrade, but it was still behind the competition (like let's say Xperia Z1 released the same year). Don't get me wrong, it was a decent phone, but most of those who had S3 didn't wanted to upgrade to S4. At the time there was just not enough to go for it.

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • JbI
    • 27 Mar 2017

    AnonD-404798, 27 Mar 2017''S4 was a compact phone despite the relatively big screen ... moreSony never marketed ZL much. It was all about Xperia Z back then if you remember correctly. Xperia Z's relatively success is actually what gave Sony the idea that they should make bezels as fat as possible in all of their future phones.

    So yeah, while technically true that Sony had a low bezel phone out, they were pretty much the high priests of giant bezels in practice.

      • D
      • AnonD-404798
      • d%{
      • 27 Mar 2017

      Anonymous, 27 Mar 2017S4 was the biggest difference than any previous galaxy. The... more''S4 was a compact phone despite the relatively big screen for its time (best body to screen ratio in the market). ''

      really , are you sure ?

      http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=5203&idPhone2=5125

        • ?
        • Anonymous
        • nnQ
        • 27 Mar 2017

        Samsung now seem adept at ignoring what their high end customers really want. One thing is for sure. If you ignore your customers, sooner or later rest assured they will ignore you and be ex-customers.

          • S
          • Savor
          • Ibx
          • 27 Mar 2017

          I agree. I hope the S8 flops. The S7 edge wasn't even the top seller last year. It was the iPhone 6s followed by the 7. Samsung has become painfully arrogant thinking they dictate the Android market. Samsung only became #1 through default because of Nokia's downfall.

          Samsung is the last to remove the physical home button. The recent button and back are still reversed.

          Samsung offers the worst software skin and optimization which has their fans clamoring for more RAM. Gives Android a had stigma.

          Samsung offered cheap, generic plastic design for years including their flagships. Now they offer it in fragile glass.

          Samsung still doesn't offer a dual camera lens which is NOT a gimmick unlike the gimmicks they provided.

          Had Nokia used Android earlier on, Nokia would probably still be on top. With the 2020's, perhaps a new king will emerge. Hoping it is a former one thanks to HMD Global Oy headquartered in Finland with ex-Nokia employees who had worked in Nokia during the 3310 and N-series heydays.

          Let the Nokian spirit and close to stock Android (Nexus) live on...

            • ?
            • Anonymous
            • JbI
            • 27 Mar 2017

            AlienFromNextDoor, 27 Mar 2017Because peoplw realised you don't need to spend much to get... moreI've just used Xiaomi Mi Mix. Nothings touches it, if you don't care about camera it's the best portable computer bar none. Pocketable yet huge screen, endless ram, very fast UI with nifty features, end less battery...

            It *crashes* mid offers from the same company (say Redmi note). Flagships *exist* it's only that only few companies do them well, the rest are merely naming their mid-high phones "flagships" to make a quick buck. True flagships actually can and do look more luxurious in both looks and experience...

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • JbI
              • 27 Mar 2017

              AnonD-507785, 27 Mar 2017Samsung became an Apple of Android world. They think they c... moreS4 was the biggest difference than any previous galaxy. The change from S3 to S4 was huge and that was reflecteD on sales. Consumers are not dummies. S4 to S5 was a far smaller difference and Samsung actually lost sales there, and with S6 things got worse...

              S4 was the first galaxy with high end camera
              S4 was the first 1080p Galaxy S phone
              S4 had a hugely better SoC
              S4 had twice the ram (from the international variant of S3)
              S4 was a compact phone despite the relatively big screen for its time (best body to screen ratio in the market).

              S4 was a huge release and had huge sales. They should emulate its success instead of creating alternativr histories (S3 was not nearly as exciting, S4 was the *peak* in both sales and quality).

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                • AlienFromNextDoor
                • JK1
                • 27 Mar 2017

                Because peoplw realised you don't need to spend much to get all you need. Midrangers do practically eveything flagships do for much less.

                Add to that the fact last year flagships get to half the price in a year and One Plus and Huawei bringing out flagship devices that cost half as much as Galaxy phones...well...

                Only Apple fans are still stupid enough to pay up.

                  • S
                  • Savor
                  • Ibx
                  • 27 Mar 2017

                  Most current midrange specs of today were flagship specs just 3-4 years prior. Most consumers can live it as the only difference is screen resolution/quality, SoC, and camera. People are overpaying by about 2x-3x for really nothing more than "luxury" and not for actual "needs" which a $100-$200 phone can do like 90% of those tasks.

                  I have a mixture of a trio of old flagships from 2013, a trio of 2016 flagships, and a pair cheap $30 phones released in 2015. Honestly, I prefer using my $30 Moto E 2nd gen over my SD820 Galaxy S7 edge. I really don't see the hype with the S7e. The lag is evident with Grace UX. The curved screen is annoying to type on. The free Gear VR is slow to download videos, brief to watch, and pixelated and glitchy.

                  For the money people are saving from getting midrangers, you can even buy something else more useful or get another of the same model in case the other slows down to a crawl. Flagship prices have become status symbols and fashion accessories. Fossil fuel to ruin the Earth with e-waste. Probably more interested in the Nokia 5 or 6 than the S8.

                    • S
                    • Snakeim
                    • Ibx
                    • 27 Mar 2017

                    I'm not surprised with the lack of innovation and their new even bigger phones. While there's a good market for bigger smartphones, the bread and butter is still in the medium sized phones. They copy every single feature from Apple but I they still can't get why IPhone sells which I'd mainly : the size.

                      • D
                      • AnonD-507785
                      • nCi
                      • 27 Mar 2017

                      Samsung became an Apple of Android world. They think they can dictate such a high prices and still increase the sales? The problem is, iPhones are the only ones exclusive to iOS, where Samsung phones are among many phones offering Android experience. So people are starting to question the value for money. These days mid-range phones are almost as good as the flagships (and sometimes superior to them, depends what you're looking for). Also you have a very strong competition from other brands, that offer very similar user experience for far less. And yes, lastly the failure of Note 7 will take it's toll on future sales anyway, because some people already moved to other brands. Samsung was at the peak with S2 and S3. That propelled sales of S4, which wasn't that much different than previous phone, and with S5 the sales were slowly going down. I really hope S8 will sell poorly, it's for our sake as a customers.

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • JbI
                        • 27 Mar 2017

                        Actually that's not a coincidence.

                        S4 was the last top dog Samsung ever produced (along with Note 3 to be fair).

                        It was top in everything.

                        Largest battery, best SoC, most RAM, removable everything, first 1080p amoled, minimal bezels ... and all those 4 years ago.

                        S5 was already a step back by adding more bezels, keeping the ram at a measly 2GB (that aged horribly btw)

                        S6 was two steps back, by killing autonomy and removing everything that was removable.

                        S7 was actually a step forwards (as compared to S6) but it was a year tarnished due to Note 8

                        The signs for S8 are not good at all. Al ostrich useless aspect ratio, same resout ion for third time in a row. VR is going nowhere as they don't seem to invest on it, smaller batter than last year, only a tiny better SoC and same amount of ram (and probably a tiny better camera).

                        Things don't seem well. Samsung may have mid rangers to "save" them ... but for how long I don't know. The Chinese comem with vengeance at those price ranges (just look how much better offer OnePlus 3T is that probably most Samsung mid rangers).

                        Samsung should be afraid, but I know they're not because they've become an endless bureaucracy that is actually acting in self harming ways (a bit like Apple noawadays).

                        I'm sure there were someone in there saying that S8 is probably a mistake (being too much like S7, even worse in some things), I'm also sure that he was not heard. A sign of a failing bureaucracy is when good ideas are not heard anymore...

                          • D
                          • AnonD-634681
                          • 3DR
                          • 27 Mar 2017

                          I work in a phoneshop, can safely say the J series beats the A & S series together in terms of sales, most of the customers in the phone market don't want the massive prices & live comfortably with even a J3 2016... until it runs out of storage, the base storage of all Samsung's midrange phones should be hitting the 16gb mark, even light users clog it up with sometimes less than 5 apps & apps like facebook (although facebook is by far the worst) takes up around 500mb! if applications alone are slowly increasing in size the market should respond to this

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                            • Arian Adler
                            • JK1
                            • 27 Mar 2017

                            Too many cheaper phone like this: My cheap Andy phone ((:less than 128$:)) R main cause

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                              • Mkdc
                              • 5Mb
                              • 27 Mar 2017

                              so much profits from mid and low end can only mean one thing, samsung handsets are not as good value as other oems where they actually are barely breakeven or even losing profits in some cases.

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • nnQ
                                • 27 Mar 2017

                                When midrange phones are coming with more RAM and bigger batteries at a lower price point I am not surprised the sales of high end phones is dropping. To be honest I think Samsung have become arrogant, lazy and complacent and now the results of that are starting to impact their bottom line and they only have themselves to blame.

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                                  • VasiliS7edge
                                  • iAE
                                  • 27 Mar 2017

                                  truone, 27 Mar 2017Midrange phones are so good nowadays there is no need to bu... moreThat's exactly is the reason.

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                                    • truone
                                    • Rf7
                                    • 27 Mar 2017

                                    Midrange phones are so good nowadays there is no need to buy a flagship

                                      • D
                                      • AnonD-424566
                                      • Bw@
                                      • 27 Mar 2017

                                      It will get a whole lot worse if they don't start bringing there prices down, make flagships affordable for everyone and not just the selective few,?

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • IVN
                                        • 27 Mar 2017

                                        the j series is the one.