According to Mehdi Hosseini, an analyst with Susquehanna Financial Group, Samsung has been holding private meetings with investors during the past few weeks to “temper” their Galaxy S4 shipment expectations. The definition of “temper”, as a verb, is “to make more acceptable.”
So what sort of numbers are we talking about here? Analysts used to think that Samsung would sell 25 million GS4 units in Q3 and then an additional 30 million in Q4. Those numbers have now been lowered to 20 million in both Q3 and Q4. Hosseini also adds that Samsung is placing a greater emphasis on the midrange smartphone market. His definition of mid range are smartphones that cost between $200 and $300. Samsung’s more expensive phones, according to Hosseini, have “growth rates [that] are peaking.” Now should any of this alarm you? Nope. Most markets in the West (U.S., Europe, etc.) have already passed the 50% smartphone threshold, meaning the only people left who don’t own a smartphone are people who don’t want to spend a lot of money on a phone. Combine that with the ever increasing middle class in the emerging markets, and the market for $300 smartphones does look like the one that companies should target. When will we find out about Samsung’s GS4 sales numbers? Looking back at the GS3, the company published a press release when they sold their first 10 million, and then they published press releases for every additional 10 million units sold. So I wouldn’t be surprised if we heard “20 million GS4 units sold” at the company’s event later this month. Update: New article on the WSJ, here’s the relevant quote:
