UPDATED 04:33 EDT / APRIL 08 2016

NEWS

Samsung upgrades earning projections as Galaxy S7 sales go gangbusters

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. have revised their earnings projection for the first quarter upwards, as its flagship Galaxy S7 phone has won over the buying public and is proverbially going gangbusters in sales.

Samsung said in a press release that it expected an operating profit for the first quarter to come in at 6.6 trillion won ($5.7 billion), a 10 percent increase from 6 trillion won for the same period in 2015.

Although Samsung did not provide a breakdown of which of its divisions are driving the increased profit, analysts believe it has been driven by a massive increase in Galaxy S7 sales since the phone was released March 11.

According to reports, it’s believed that Samsung sold 10 million units in the 20 days it was on sale in March, well ahead of predictions of 5 to 7 million units, but more remarkably three times higher than the number of Galaxy S6 phones sold in the 20 days post its release in April 2015.

The increase is sales is being credited to several things: the phone is remarkably good and saw the return of fan favorites including the ability to add an SD card and waterproofing, as well as the decision by Samsung to drop the price of the phone versus the Galaxy S6 in a market where new models (including those from Samsung itself) have traditionally been launched with a price increase.

In addition, to quote Bloomberg:

While Samsung’s chip and display businesses probably will suffer as a result [of the price decrease], sales of the S7 devices are being energized by critical praise, a lull in new models from Chinese makers and the lack of an iPhone 7 to sway upgraders and first-time buyers.

It really is good

Since writing SilicongANGLE’s Samsung Galaxy S7 review March 28, I’ve had another 11 days with the phone and it’s gotten to the point that my wife to be is worried that I love my S7 more than I do her.

In nearly every single test I can possibly dream up, it passes amazingly well.

The only thing I could fault it for is that heavily digitally zoomed pictures in low light at night don’t work, but that’s true of any phone, including the iPhone. Otherwise in low light, the dual pixel camera, even with its downgrade to 12 megapixels from 16 in the Galaxy, is just truly remarkable for a smartphone camera.

There was one time when I threw it in a bath and the various alert tones emanating from the phone afterwards sounded like … well, they were drowned, but remarkably the next morning the phone was fine again; it may be somewhat facetious to use that example, but it really is a stretch to find faults with the Galaxy S7, and it’s certainly not something you would try with an iPhone 6S.

After a nearly regular run of misses since the Galaxy S3, Samsung deserves credit for finally making an Android phone that is truly magnificent and desirable.

Image credit: 91265124@N03/Flickr/CC by 2.0

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