Samsung has been oddly quiet over 2014 when it comes to the Galaxy S5 — normally the crown jewel of the South Korean company — little and less has been said about sales and worldwide growth.
A new report from The Wall Street Journal might explain the lack of figures, according to sources, Samsung missed its sale target for the Galaxy S5 by 40 percent. The company only managed to sell 12 million units in the opening three months.
When compared to Apple’s 39 million sales in Q3 2014 with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which have been out for less than three months, it is easy to see why Samsung has kept to the shadows with the Galaxy S5.
Samsung has never had an inventory scare as large as this, reports say warehouses were full of the devices, and Samsung would regularly push sales just to get rid of outstanding inventory, costing the company millions.
In Apple’s finest hour, it looks like Samsung lost a lot of ground. China is the main loss for Samsung, with 50 percent fewer sales, compared to in 2013 with the Galaxy S4. Surprisingly, the U.S. market share raised slightly for Samsung, but not enough to be meaningful.
The UK and the rest of Europe failed to see the excitement surrounding the Galaxy S5 either, but there was no huge loss for Samsung in this region. Other smartphones — both cheaper and more fitted to a European audience — have cropped up throughout the year.
Reports say the Galaxy Note 4 is also struggling to get ground against the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, with Apple’s two smartphones outselling Samsung’s phablet 10-to-1 worldwide.
Samsung is looking to shake up the executive line to make sure a mistake like this does not happen again. Samsung has been marked as being lazy with the Galaxy S5, not adding a full metal design and skimming around some of the major features.
Android manufacturers like Xiaomi, HTC, Motorola and OnePlus have not been skimming however, and this has caused Samsung to lose market share year-on-year.
It is not all over though, Samsung still sold twice as many smartphones in Q3 2014 than second place Apple, and seven times as many as Xiaomi. How much profit Samsung made out of these sales, however, remains to be seen.
