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Less than two weeks after the Samsung Galaxy S7 and its curved sibling Galaxy S7 Edge officially launched worldwide, reports from Samsung’s home country of South Korea suggest that both flagships are selling well above initial expectations. According to certain market analysts, the latest two Samsung phones did particularly well in eastern markets such as China and India. Even though neither device is yet officially available in China, pre-orders in the country opened on March 11th, the day when both Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge launched in the US (and about 60 other regions) and research suggests that over ten million Chinese customers will place their pre-orders by the time Samsung actually ships its latest two phones to China. JD, a major Chinese online retailer and Suning, one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in the country have already received 6.4 and 1.4 million pre-orders of the two devices, respectively. As for Europe, sources are claiming that combined pre-orders of Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge have surpassed those of last year’s Galaxy S6 line by more than 250 percent. For reference, it was confirmed that Samsung received at least 20 million of European pre-orders for Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge in 2015.
The general consensus among analysts seems to be that Samsung is doing so well because it has listened to user feedback and either brought back or included numerous features that were missing from last year’s flagship Galaxy models. Of course, this primarily pertains to the return of the microSD card slot, but dust and water resistance, redesigned cases, and improved hardware are also some of the features that can be described as consumer-friendly and therefore have a significant impact on sales. We’re yet to see some specific figures regarding the amount of preordered and sold Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge devices, but things are looking good for Samsung so far.
Regarding India specifically, it was recently confirmed that Indian customers who have already paid for their pre-orders or outright purchased Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge can also claim their free Samsung GearVR headset along with a handful of compatible games. This is the same promotion that’s available in the US and several other regions until March 31st. As the value of the free pack amounts to around 150 bucks, it’s not a bad incentive for those that are on the fence about buying one of Samsung’s last two flagships.