Will Galaxy S10 Sell More Than 40 Million Units?

As Samsung Electronics Co. unveiled the Galaxy S10 series and a foldable phone at the same time, industry watchers are speculating about how many units the company will be able to sell. They are wondering whether the Galaxy S10 series can sell more than 40 million units.

Samsung Electronics unveiled the Galaxy S10, which is the 10-year anniversary device of the Galaxy series, and a foldable phone in San Francisco, U.S., on Feb. 20 (local time). The company used to launch a basic model and a plus model of the Galaxy at the same time. This year, however, it simultaneously released four models of the Galaxy S10, including the entry-level S10e, the basic model S10, the plus model S10 Plus and a 5G model S10 5G.

Analysts are speculating whether the sales of the Galaxy S series, the company’s flagship smartphones for the first half of 2019, will be able to exceed 40 million units in the first year of their launch. The Galaxy S7 sold 47 million units, approaching the 50 million mark, and the Galaxy S8 and S9 also sold 38 million units and 32 million units, respectively. Many project that sales of the Galaxy S10 will reach the mid-30 million range, which is between the sales of the Galaxy S8 and the S9.

However, the Galaxy S10 series can sell over 40 million units as the new flagship lineup has four different models ranging from the entry level to the limited edition of the S10 Plus with 1 TB of storage.

The Galaxy S10e, which is the entry-level model of the premium line, is the counterpart of Apple’s entry-level iPhone X, the iPhone XR. It featuresa 5.8-inch display and 16-megapixel dual camera with 10 megapixels on the front and 12 megapixels on the back. The Galaxy S10e equipped with 128 GB of storage is the most affordable of the bunch with 899,800 won (US$801.60) so that it can attract a wider range of demand class.

The Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus feature a 6.1 inch and 6.3 inch display, respectively. The Galaxy S10 is available in with 6GB RAM and 128 GB storage and 8GB RAM and 512GB storage. The Galaxy S10 Plus offers up to 1TB of storage and 12GB RAM for the first time in the world.

The factory price of the Galaxy S10 with 128 GB storage is 1,056,000 won (US$939.59) and the Galaxy S10 Plus with 128 GB storage 1,155,000 won (US$1,027.40).

Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics introduced its foldable phone model with the Galaxy S10 on the same day. It features a 4.58-inch smartphone display when closed and a huge 7.3-inch tablet screen when opened. The company is planning to produce 1 million units of the foldable phone for the first batch and increase the production according to the level of expansion of the foldable market. The factory price of the foldable phone model is expected to start from 2 million won (US$1,778) to 3 million won (US$2,667).