Samsung Scores Locall
While Samsung (005930.KS) and Apple (AAPL) continue their tug-of-war for top billing in the global smartphone market, Samsung is still king in its home country of South Korea, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3, the Galaxy A32, and the Galaxy S21 5G holding spots 1, 3, and 4 in the top 5 most popular models in Korea in 4Q ’21 (Apple holds spot 2 and 5). However each successive series of Samsung’s flagship phones, the Galaxy S, have not been selling as well as previous year’s models, and Samsung has been looking for a way to stem that decline. At least based on pre-order rates, Samsung might have found the right configuration to build back its flagship customer base, at least in Korea, something Samsung wants to push out to its global customers.
Indications, again based on pre-order rates, are that the recently announced Galaxy S22 line is seeing over 1m pre-orders over the last 7 days, an average rate of 145,700 units/day (day 1 saw ~300k), better than the 127,200 units/day seen with the S21 last year. A bit telling is that ~60% of the pre-orders were for the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the most expensive of the three S22 models and the only one that supports Samsung’s S-Pen, a feature that drove many Samsung users to the Galaxy Note series which Samsung has tacitly ended. With those Note users wishing to upgrade older models, the logical choice among the S series is the Ultra, which we believe accounts for what we believe s a higher than normal share for this model.
Further, the Galaxy Fold 3 and Galaxy Flip 3 (combined) saw close to 1m pre-orders in the pre-release stage last year, and while they did not hit the 1m mark, sold considerably better than previous models. The Fold 3 also supports the S-Pen but does not have a storage slot as does the S22 Ultra, a feature also seen in the Note line. It remains to be seen if the Galaxy S22 series does as well globally but smartphone brands take strong (pre-release) orders as a very positive sign no matter where they come from. The phones are available for pre-order in the US with an expected delivery date of March 3, with Samsung offering further encouragement by giving ‘pre-orderers’ 4 free months of YouTube (GOOG) premium, 3 free months of Spotify (SPOT) Premium, 6 free months of Sirius XM (LMSXA) streaming, 6 free months of OneDrive (MSFT), and a $100 Google Play credit. If you are really nice, they will come to your house and clean your garage (just kidding on that one but it’s worth a try). Samsung also mentioned that the new Galaxy S8 tablet series pre-orders are running at 2x the pre-orders for the Galaxy S7 tablet. All three Galaxy S8 tablets support the S-Pen.
Indications, again based on pre-order rates, are that the recently announced Galaxy S22 line is seeing over 1m pre-orders over the last 7 days, an average rate of 145,700 units/day (day 1 saw ~300k), better than the 127,200 units/day seen with the S21 last year. A bit telling is that ~60% of the pre-orders were for the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the most expensive of the three S22 models and the only one that supports Samsung’s S-Pen, a feature that drove many Samsung users to the Galaxy Note series which Samsung has tacitly ended. With those Note users wishing to upgrade older models, the logical choice among the S series is the Ultra, which we believe accounts for what we believe s a higher than normal share for this model.
Further, the Galaxy Fold 3 and Galaxy Flip 3 (combined) saw close to 1m pre-orders in the pre-release stage last year, and while they did not hit the 1m mark, sold considerably better than previous models. The Fold 3 also supports the S-Pen but does not have a storage slot as does the S22 Ultra, a feature also seen in the Note line. It remains to be seen if the Galaxy S22 series does as well globally but smartphone brands take strong (pre-release) orders as a very positive sign no matter where they come from. The phones are available for pre-order in the US with an expected delivery date of March 3, with Samsung offering further encouragement by giving ‘pre-orderers’ 4 free months of YouTube (GOOG) premium, 3 free months of Spotify (SPOT) Premium, 6 free months of Sirius XM (LMSXA) streaming, 6 free months of OneDrive (MSFT), and a $100 Google Play credit. If you are really nice, they will come to your house and clean your garage (just kidding on that one but it’s worth a try). Samsung also mentioned that the new Galaxy S8 tablet series pre-orders are running at 2x the pre-orders for the Galaxy S7 tablet. All three Galaxy S8 tablets support the S-Pen.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra - Source: Samsung
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