SEOUL (Xinhua): Samsung Electronics said Friday it has sold more than 1 million units of its new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S10, in South Korea, with the product becoming the fastest Galaxy device to surpass the mark.
The South Korean tech giant said sales of the Galaxy S10 were more than 1 million as of Tuesday following its launch on March 8. Its predecessor, the Galaxy S9, reached the milestone in 60 days.
Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone maker, said its 5G version sold 230,000 units after being released on April 5.
The nation’s three mobile carriers — SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. — switched on the 5G network earlier this month, making South Korea the world’s first nation to roll out a commercial 5G service.
The upbeat figure came as Samsung, also the world’s No. 1 memory chip maker, is seeing a drop in its earnings due to falling chip prices and a lackluster performance in its mobile business.
Earlier, Samsung said its operating profit was estimated at 6.2 trillion won in the January-March period, a 60.4 percent drop from a year ago.
The tech giant expected overall sales to have fallen 14.1 percent on-year to 52 trillion won in the three-month period.
Samsung did not break down the performances of its respective business divisions. The tech behemoth is set to announce detailed earnings later this month.
The figures were below market expectations of 6.7 trillion won, based on the survey conducted by YonhapInfomax, the financial arm of Yonhap News Agency on 28 South Korean brokerage houses. The sales estimate stood at 53.4 trillion won on average.
Samsung’s IT and mobile business was expected to have posted robust earnings on the back of the Galaxy S10.
During a shareholder meeting on March 20, DJ Koh, head of Samsung’s smartphone business, said the initial market reaction to the Galaxy S10 was “positive” in major markets, including China, and expressed hope for improved profitability from the division.
