Samsung hopes to break sales record with new Galaxy duo

An event hall for the launching event of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge at an adjacent building of the firm’s headquarters in Gangnam was filled with excitement even an hour before its start, reflecting the high market expectations on the latest flagship handsets.

When Shin Jong-kyun, Samsung’s mobile business chief, took the stage to deliver a keynote speech at the Galaxy S6 World Tour, he was bombarded with a flurry of camera flashes.

“Samsung has developed the new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge after making relentless efforts to create innovation and meet the real needs of mobile users,” the Samsung CEO said. 

Samsung’s new marquee smartphone duo boast all-new design and cutting-edge technologies including the industry’s first built-in wireless-charging batteries, the industry’s most advanced mobile processor, and a new mobile payment system, called Samsung Pay.

The S6 Edge also sports a dual-curved display that wraps around both sides of the screen.

Top executives of Samsung attending the Thursday event also pinned high hopes on the latest smartphone models.

“The S6 will set a sales record among the entire Galaxy models,” said Lee Sang-chul, head of Samsung’s strategic marketing division.

The current record of Samsung’s smartphone sales reportedly stands at 70 million units, set by the firm’s third and fourth Galaxy smartphones, the S3 and S4, respectively.

As to the reports of tight supply of the S6 Edge, Shin said that Samsung would step up efforts to improve the production yield of the multisided display to resolve supply shortage issues.

Market analysts expect the S6 and S6 Edge to boost Samsung’s profits and help it get back on track after suffering from lackluster sales of the predecessor, Galaxy S5, due to the cutthroat competition from rapidly growing Chinese budget smartphone makers Xiaomi and Huawei, and Apple in the high-end market.

“Samsung will likely ship around 20.5 million units of the new models in the second quarter with the S6 Edge accounting for half,” said Eo Kyu-jin, an analyst at eBEST Investment Securities in his investment report.

He also anticipated Samsung’s second-quarter revenue will increase 16 percent to 54.6 trillion won compared to the first quarter of this year and its operating profits will jump 30 percent to 7.8 trillion won.

Other analysts also forecast positive outlooks on the sales of the new handsets, expecting a record 50 million units this year, surpassing the 45 million unit threshold recorded by the Galaxy S4.

The birth of the Galaxy lineup dates back to 2010 when the Seoul-based tech giant released the first Galaxy S to catch up with Apple, the pioneer of the world’s smartphone market.

Compared to the first model, the Galaxy S, the latest version of the Galaxy model boasts a 73 percent larger battery capacity with the display’s pixel density standing at 577 pixels per inch, more than double that of the Galaxy S.

The first Galaxy smartphone sports a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, a 1,500 mAh battery and a 3G network chip.

More than 25 million units of the first Galaxy smartphone were sold worldwide paving the way for the succeeding models.

Around 40 million units of the Galaxy S2, which was released in 2012, were sold, helping the Korean firm beat its arch-rival Apple for the first time to take the lead in the world’s smartphone market.

Riding the momentum, Samsung snatched the world’s largest market share at 32.3 percent in 2013 after releasing the fourth Galaxy model.

Despite new technologies featured on the Galaxy S5, including a heart rate monitoring sensor, a water-resistant body case and a fingerprint sensor, the smartphone failed to appeal to global consumers leading to declining profits.

The S6 and S6 Edge will first hit the shelves of 20 nations including the U.S., U.K, Germany and France on Friday.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)