Samsung Galaxy S5 Outsells Galaxy S4 by 2 to 1 in the UK; Driven by 4G

[dgstorm]

It turns out that Samsung may have underestimated how important 4G service is to consumers in the UK. Their Galaxy S5 just outsold the Galaxy S4 from last year by a factor of 2 to 1 in that part of Europe. The reason for that has been overwhelmingly because the UK version of the Galaxy S5 includes 4G support whereas the Galaxy S4 did not.

Here's a quote with more of the details,

UK mobile phone retailers Phones 4U and Carphone Warehouse have revealed that sales of the S5 were more than double that of the S4 on its first day alone. The two big street staples say that pre-orders for the new phone were "significantly" higher than its predecessor.

4G is still at a relatively early stage in Britain, but it seems the S5 has arrived at the point when it's reached wide enough coverage and hit price levels phone fans are willing to embrace.

Both retail chains are partnered with Samsung to run dedicated Samsung Experience shops across Britain and Europe, the first of which opened just in time for the S5 launch.

What's curious is that the Galaxy S5 is actually selling better than the Galaxy S4 did in other parts of the world too. According to Yoon Han-kil, senior vice president of Samsung's product strategy team, The Galaxy S5 is "selling faster than the S4 so far." In the United States, most of the online and media consensus was that the Galaxy S5 wasn't as exciting of a launch as the Galaxy S4 last year, yet the Galaxy S4 had lower than expected sales according to Samsung's predictions.

It turns out that the average consumer wasn't enamored by the fancy software gimmicks found in the Galaxy S4. Samsung purposefully decided to tone down on those features and instead focus on issues which are typically more important to the average customer. Features like vastly improved battery life and water-resistance are more useful to most folks. This has lead to the Galaxy S5 being a better success.

It just goes to show that finding the right balance to appeal to consumers is a challenging game that manufacturers play.

Source: CNET

 

[johnomaz]

They all probably had Galaxy S3s and didn't see the S4 as an upgrade.

 

[jspradling7]

Or they weren't due for an upgrade yet.