In the earnings guidance for its second quarter Samsung blamed weak demand for its smartphones as one of the reasons behind falling revenue. The company might have hoped that the Galaxy S5 would have been able to turn its fortunes but apparently that didn’t happen. A report published today claims that the Galaxy S5’s sales are lagging behind the iPhone 5s, certainly a blow for Samsung, given the fact that the latter was released almost eight months before Samsung’s 2014 flagship.
Research firm Counterpoint conducted a survey in 35 markets and found that the iPhone 5s sales stood at 7 million units in May as opposed to 5 million units for the Galaxy S5. Evidently customers in these markets were drawn more towards the eight month old iPhone notwithstanding the fact that a new iPhone is on the horizon.
Counterpoint measures direct sales from retailers to consumers as opposed to the industry practice of looking at shipments made by the manufacturer. Thus this paints an actual picture of the situation on ground, that in May 7 million iPhone 5s units were actually sold in the 35 markets that Counterpoint surveyed.
Samsung hasn’t commented on this report but its no doubt worrying for the company as it continues to battle saturation in the high-end market. Some believe that the company will fare well if it turned to metal instead of plastic which is why there are rumors that a revamped version of Galaxy S5 with a metal build is going to be released soon.