Galaxy S20 only mustering 60% of Galaxy S10 sales

Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, Samsung was already doing it tough as far as flagship smartphone sales go. Its dominance is being challenged on all sides from a slew of Chinese competitors in all segment tiers as well as Apple. Just how bleak its flagship sales outlook is has become a little clearer with the SE Daily out of Korea reporting that its flagship Galaxy S20 series is only selling around 60 percent the volume of its predecessor, the Galaxy S10.

According to the report, the sales figures arose during a private and informal conference call with a group of securities analysts. It is thought the reference to the sales figures pertain specifically to the Korean market, but it wouldn’t surprise if it was struggling to gain its usual market traction in other markets as well. For example, it has already been discounted in the US on Amazon with the Galaxy S20 down to US $800 and the S20+ down to US$1,000.

Another factor that could be hampering sales of the Galaxy S20 in some markets like Australia and India, is that the range ships with Samsung’s own Exynos 990 chipset instead of the US market where it ships with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865. Although the Exynos 990 is competitive with the Snapdragon 865, the performance difference between Samsung’s Exynos chipset and the Snapdragon appears to be more marked than in previous years. Further, Qualcomm is promising updateable GPU drivers that will only widen the performance differential.