While Samsung’s Galaxy S9 is undoubtedly a solid and impressive device, the South Korean-based company faces the same type of challenges as Apple, which is to say that smartphone owners are upgrading their devices far less frequently than in years past. This dynamic can likely be attributed to two main factors. For starters, top-tier smartphones today are incredibly powerful and, in turn, tend to be ‘good enough’ even a few years after initially hitting store shelves. Second, the impetus to upgrade to new smartphone models has weakened as smartphone manufacturers struggle to add compelling new features on an annual basis.
All that said, Galaxy S9 sales in South Korea finally crossed the 1 million threshold this week, just about two months after launching on March 16. Though 1 million in sales in South Korea is impressive, it’s worth noting that it took the S9 a tad longer to reach that mark relative to last year’s Galaxy S8.
To this point, Phone Arena adds:
For comparison, last year’s flagship devices took just 37 days to reach that number, while even 2011’s Galaxy S2 reached the milestone in 40 days, making the sales pace of the Galaxy S9 series one of the company’s lowest ever.
Outside of South Korea, the Galaxy S9 appears to be selling moderately well, with a research report last month relaying that S9 sales are slightly outpacing S8 sales. Still, S9 sales aren’t close to matching the success Samsung saw with its S7 lineup a few years back. Again, this isn’t a knock against Samsung as the smartphone industry as a whole has seen sales declines this year.
