Samsung has reported a good start for its flagship Galaxy S5, surpassing 11 million units sold since the April launch, WSJ reports.
Samsung, the biggest smartphone manufacturer, is outpacing its previous year flagship model in terms of sales with its 2014 flagship, Galaxy S5. The Korean tech giant has sold more than 11 million phones in its debut month, performing slightly better than its predecessor, the company's co-chief executive told Wall Street Journal.
"It's been a month since we began selling the S5, and out of the gate, sales are much stronger than the Galaxy S4," J.K. Shin, head of Samsung's mobile business, told WSJ during an interview at the company headquarters on Thursday. The new milestone set by the Galaxy S5 beats the previous year's Galaxy S5 by a million. The Galaxy S4 sold 10 million units in 27 days after it went on sale.
Shin revealed that the strong sales of the Galaxy S5 were a result of better planning. Samsung launched the latest flagship simultaneously in 125 countries in April and also had agreements with major carriers in place. The device's success comes despite its poor reviews from critics, due to the continued use of plastic in the Galaxy S5 and lagging fingerprint scanner and heart rate monitor.
Samsung hopes to boost the dwindling profits with the strong sales of the Galaxy S5, even as it enters the second quarter this year. During its first quarter, Samsung reported its first profit decline in more than three years, at $6.2 billion. The company also lost 1 percent in the smartphone market share during the first quarter this year, which was the first since 2009, CNET reports.
The declining sales of smartphones are a result of intense competition from low-cost smartphone makers like Huawei and Lenovo. But the tech giant is planning to rollout new versions of the flagships in different countries over the course of next few months to gain the lost momentum, WSJ reports. Another featured launch of the successor of the Galaxy Note 3 is expected during the second half of the year.
Samsung also reported impressive first day sales, outperforming the sales of Galaxy S4. As the success trend continues, Samsung is bound to reclaim the top position that was lost with last year's flagship.
