The Samsung Galaxy S4 was probably one of the most anticipated smartphones of 2013, especially given the success of the Galaxy S lineup. However despite Samsung announcing the sales of 20 million units back in July, there have been reports that the handset is not selling as well as it should, leading carriers such as Japan’s NTT DOCOMO to drop the handset from its lineup, as well as Samsung slashing orders of the handset by 50%. It turns out the situation might have been more dire than we had thought as a report by analyst Peter Misek has revealed that the Galaxy S4 has been missing internal targets.
According to Misek, this affects not just Samsung, but Apple as well, because had the Galaxy S4 gone on to meet the internal targets of the South Korean tech giant, they would have raised the foundry prices on Apple, making Apple spend more money to build their products. As most of you guys are probably aware, Apple and Samsung have a somewhat rocky business relationship where Samsung is responsible for manufacturing components of Apple’s iOS devices.
Misek was quoted as saying, “Galaxy S4 sales missed internal targets leading Samsung to not raise foundry prices for Apple like we expected.” Unfortunately Misek did not state as to why the Galaxy S4 was missing internal sales targets, which is odd given that the device is a pretty solid product and has gotten pretty good reviews to date. In any case what do you guys think? Why is the Galaxy S4 not doing as well as it should?