Updated | Galaxy S24 series reportedly reduced to two members as disappointing Apple iPhone 14 Plus sales unsettle Samsung

Update January 11: The well-known leaker Roland Quandt has disputed the content of The Elec article, stating that DM1, DM2, and DM3 ("Diamond") were codenames used just for the Galaxy S23 series. Fellow tipster Ice universe has also deleted several tweets that were related to and agreed with The Elec's story.

Original story:

A report on the Korean-language site for The Elec has claimed that Samsung is not currently developing a potential Galaxy S24+ smartphone. Apparently, there is work on DM1 and DM3 projects, which will presumably become the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Ultra, respectively, but a DM2 project for an “intermediate model” (S24+) is not in progress. It has been opined that Samsung could simply opt to release just two phone variants for the 2024 Galaxy S series.

A number of reasons are offered for why Samsung might decide to cut out the Galaxy S24+, with the main one being that smartphone buyers just don’t seem to be particularly interested in Plus-size models. According to the report, 31.5 million units of the Samsung Galaxy S22 series were shipped, but only 5.5 million units (17%) were of the Plus-size variety. The S22 Ultra (45%) was the most successful, with the standard S22 also selling well (38%).

However, it’s not just sales of the Plus members of the Galaxy S series that has Samsung unsettled; Apple has also had to tolerate supposed poor sales performance for its iPhone 14 Plus. Estimated shipment figures for the range stand at 94.2 million units, with the standard iPhone 14 (32%), iPhone 14 Pro (32%), and iPhone 14 Pro Max (30%) eating up the lion’s share. That left just 6%, or 5.5 million units, for the unloved iPhone 14 Plus.

Other factors may force Samsung to cut the Galaxy S24+ from the lineup, including declining global smartphone sales and the better profit margins offered by sales of the top-end models. Samsung may focus mostly on making the Galaxy S24 Ultra the flagship device to beat in 2024 to attract smartphone purists while relying on its millions of brand-loyal fans to snap up the cheaper standard Galaxy S24.

Buy the Samsung Galaxy S22+ on Amazon