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The current Coronavirus pandemic has hit the smartphone industry hard and no one’s immune to it. Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone vendor, is struggling too. According to a report from South Korea, the company’s Galaxy S20 lineup has only sold about 60-percent as much as the Galaxy S10 series did one year ago.
Not only is Samsung’s smartphone sales hurting but its market share value is declining as well. The South Korean conglomerate reportedly held a private conference call with some security analysts this week to address the current situation. However, things don’t really look promising for the company.
Samsung has already seen a 1.75-percent decrease in market share value and analysts expect its performance to continue declining. In fact, security analysts in South Korea have lowered their expectations regarding Samsung’s performance throughout the year. They attribute this decline to a rapid slowdown in global smartphone, PC, display, and home appliance sales.
Poor Galaxy S20 sales hurting Samsung
Samsung’s Galaxy S20 lineup consists of three excellent devices: the Galaxy S20, S20 Plus, and S20 Ultra. However, the global economic fallout caused by the Coronavirus pandemic means the company is struggling to move units.
Obviously, the Coronavirus situation is not in Samsung’s control. In this time of financial uncertainty, most people probably don’t want to splurge a huge amount of money on a new phone. Even if someone wants to, the world has come to a halt and stores are closed indefinitely in several parts of the world.
But the reported 40-percent year-on-year (YoY) decline in sales numbers means the Galaxy S20 lineup is doing worse than the global average. According to a Strategy Analytics report earlier this week, global smartphone shipments fell by 38-percent YoY in February.
It’s unclear how Samsung’s other handsets are doing. Among the three Galaxy S20s, the most expensive S20 Ultra is reportedly the best-selling model. This device makes up roughly 50-percent of overall S20 sales. So its higher price tag may help matters a little bit for the company.
On the bright side for Samsung, the company’s semiconductor sales are expected to continue their current upward trend. Strong demand for data center solutions will help drive DRAM prices.
Samsung will likely release the official sales figures as well as its total revenue and operating profit at the end of the quarter. With the world coming to a standstill because of the Coronavirus pandemic, those figures could get worse by that time.