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SAMSUNG SAID IT it expected its new flagship smartphone to shatter sales records and pull the company out of a recent profit slump that saw it lose ground to arch-rival Apple and cheaper Chinese makers.
The Galaxy S6 is the sixth edition of the South Korean electronics giant’s high-end, signature handset.
Along with its curved-edge variant, the Galaxy S6 Edge, the S6 will hit stores at home and in some 20 countries, including the United States, Singapore, India and Australia on Friday.
Unveiled in March, the two phones have received rave reviews – fanning hopes of a big comeback for Samsung after the much-criticised Galaxy S5 largely flopped last year.
“Given the response from the market and clients … we expect the S6 to set a sales record for all Galaxy models,” Lee Sang-Chul, the vice head of Samsung’s mobile unit, told reporters.
Samsung rarely discloses handset sales figures but the Galaxy S4 – released in 2013 – is known to have set the firm’s sales record of 70 million units globally.
The firm suffered a dramatic slide in profits last year, hit by slowing demand in an increasingly saturated and competitive smartphone market that it had largely dominated since 2011.
The company struggled to fend off a double challenge from Apple in the high-end market and rising Chinese firms such as Lenovo and Xiaomi in the fast-growing mid and low-end markets.
Samsung hopes the S6 will re-establish it as the clear global smartphone market leader over Apple, which has enjoyed blockbuster sales of its iPhone 6, launched last September.
Several market trackers had Apple and Samsung tied in global smartphone sales in the fourth quarter of 2014, while at least one suggested Apple had regained the throne it lost to Samsung in 2011.
Signs that Samsung was beginning to turn things around were confirmed Wednesday when it released a better-than-expected profit estimate for the first quarter.
Its forecast of an operating profit of 5.9 trillion won (€5.02 billion) was down 30.5% from a year ago, but beat average analyst expectations of around 5.5 trillion won, and was up 11.5% from the previous quarter.
The S6 and the Edge – powered by Google’s Android operating platform – feature metal and glass bodies in a break from their plastic-backed predecessors.
The head of the company’s mobile unit J.K. Shin said the complex production process for the curved S6 Edge meant it might be difficult to meet initial demand.
“I think there will be some supply shortage for a while although we’re trying our best,” he said.
Both new handsets allow users to recharge wirelessly by placing them on a charging pad. A 10-minute recharge provides an extra four hours of use.
Users will also be able to make mobile payments in a service similar to the Apple Pay feature available on iPhone 6.
Samsung said the Samsung Pay service would be launched first in South Korea in July.
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From €749 will shatter your pocket more like.
F*** that’s a lot of money
I was thinking of renewing my android smartphone this year. Have previously had Samsung. Don’t want a contract which would mean investing solely on the device. Any ideas?
Try oneplus one or soon two… Screen is a bit too big for me.
Two of my friends changed from the Galaxy to the sony z3, I laughed when I heard but they have them a while and no problems at all, they are delighted with them, i considering puting the iPhone 5 out to stud and getting one myself, they seem to be more Sony and less Ericsson
OnePlus 64GB @ €349. Excellent specs, can only be bought online tho
Get yourself a Doro son!
Shin a bhfuil so! Amazing that a phone is now more expensive than a good laptop computer.
At the end of the day,it’s still only a standard smartphone, only in fancy dress.How long more will the public be gullible.
Have you tried one?
Neal
A fancy dress ?
Yes Glen, a fancy dress. I’ve always wondered what those are like to wear but society judges us men harshly of we try them on ourselves.
Denise have mine the last month and it rocks!!! Camera is brilliant. Point and snap and great pictures majority of the time
I’m debating to take the plunge into the Chinese phone market for my next phone, the likes of Xiaomi Mi4 with a 4G 64Gb model due out soon has caught my eye and will still be half the price of the S6 or latest iPhone and the Mi4 is a beast under the hood with exceptional design build. Had a look at an Mi3 during the week and I was well impressed overall.
Where do buy them
ibuygou !
http://www.honorbuy.com which was known as xiaomshop.com until recently when Xiaomi forced them and all other retailers using their name in their site names to change. The Mi4 LTE which is a lovely phone is selling for €355 for the 16Gb which is plenty if you don’t store your entire music collection on the phone. I’ll see what reviews of the Mi5 are like in a few months before I make the change from my old reliable S4.
Me personally I think the S5 is a very good phone.
The camera doesn’t focus very well though on the s5 or the s4
Have to agree with you on the camera focus of the S5.
It’s really annoying looking back on photos and having to delete half of them
Yes. I have. And it still can only do the same thing as Internet. Social media. Utube.only a bit brighter than my 5year old htc. Which I purchased for.50euro.It’s a sad world that people can’t see the wood from the trees.
So processing speed, screen resolution, camera quality, app functionality etc are all as good on your 5 year old HTC! Some people like to spend money on phones some don’t, it doesn’t mean anyone is more or less stupid for doing so!
Each to their own, but video isn’t supposed to be much brighter on it. It is intentionally dark for watching films. Makes it more cinematicy.
Maybe they should concentrate on improving the reliability of their products. I previously purchased a TV, fridge and camera from Samsung and they were poor.
No you didn’t.
Let me guess, you’re a Samsung fanboy?
Once bitten… Twice shy.
“Let me guess, you’re a Samsung fanboy?”
Whatever agrees with your preconceived world view.
“No you didn’t.”
Whatever agrees with your preconceived world view.
Touché. Well to certainly does fit with my preconceived world view.
Journal, please invest in an edit button. :-(
Bought a Cubot X6 (smartphone) from http://www.tinydeal.com for €50
Then a €10 a month sim only deal
Value for money….
lol – poor people suck.
Have the s5. Just upgraded to lollipop. It’s a bit shit since. Lag, battery draining, camera intermittent at best. Anyone having this issue?
My alpha is awesome. So is my Gear S. Try a factory reset, you’re supposed to do that every now and again.
lol
“You’re supposed to do that…”
A while back when I updated to Lollipop on Nexus 5 I had it,but updated to 5.1 and it seems to have sorted out those issues.
I had an update a few weeks ago and it was brutal, then they issued another one which seemed to right all the issues, but they have now issued yet another one and I’m slow to download it – is this the download you’re talking about??
I’ve got android 5.0. It’s improved the camera function but only when it decides work. Very disappointing as kitkat was great – it’s the first issue I’ve had with Samsung.
The latest one is 5.1 as far as I know.
Samsung blues everbody knows them…Samsung blues everybody…..you get the drift
“You’re supposed to do that”
Yes, it might sound strange to the technology illiterate, but it’s true nontheless.
Get a bigger battery. Comes with a fatter back plate. The S6 is a non runner for me because you can’t have a spare battery or use your SD drive.
Jack, you’re the best I’ve ever seen at this on the Journal. I really mean that. You’ve balanced everything masterfully.
What do you think of the gear S? Do you have it long? Is it any good?
I have had the Gear S for 5 months now.
Looks great as long as you don’t have tiny wrists. Nice big curved screen. 3g, GPS, accelerometer, pedometer, altimeter, bluetooth and wifi all built in.
I use it mainly for running and hiking because you can leave the phone at home. You can listen to music on the watch via bluetooth earphones too.
Also handy for freaking out the misses by sending texts while taking a dump.
Another watch to consider is the LG. It has 4G. I don’t know much about the LG watch other than that. Neither need to be tethered to a phone for normal operation, but the Gear S does require an android phone for the setup.
Biggest drawback is the mobile phone companies have no useful options for billing two devices. I have bill pay for my phone and pay as you go on the watch. Then the second month I had the thing they started charging €2.50 per day for data on the PAYG plan! So I only use data on the watch when I am tethered. Doesn’t matter that much. I am mainly interested in the GPS and ability to phone and text while hiking.
After having 3 i-phone’s (original ,3 gs and 4) I switched to Samsung a few years ago and have stuck with them just out of preference . I think they are both good phones that suit different people. And I really don’t get why people see the need to say one is better than the other .
Having said that some of the things I liked about samsung have changed with the S6. You no longer have an interchangeable battery and you no longer have expandable memory .and with flash being gone for a while now. They are essentially not much different than I phones now. It’s a great looking phone but is that enough?
Apart from better screen resolution it actually has 16 FEWER features than the s5. Think I’ll wait til next year to upgrade.
Well it is an iphone of course it will do well…
Loony tunes.
I’ve a z3 and it’s terrific,battery and camera brilliant, water and dustproof to,the boss has the z3 compact which is just as good
This is what you get when you don’t understand what you are trying to rip off. Samsung will break themselves trying to beat Apple with a phone that runs on software they don’t write, while Microsoft slowly catch up with Wondows 10.
Tizen.
For 840 euro ha ha joke price Samsung – I doubt you will sell loads of them sim free. Probably even contract price would be hefty.
Don’t think so as a long time galaxy user currently an S5 I won’t be rushing to get a 6 as it’s a big dissapointment a real let down by Samsung
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