Samsung Galaxy S9 Sales Are Slumping And That's A Problem For All Premium Android Phones

Does anyone want an $800 Android phone anymore?

- Michael Simon

When Samsung officially announces its results for the second quarter, the numbers (go.pcworld. com/rcpf) will look plenty good to the untrained eye: $13 billion in profit on $51.8 billion revenue. However, analysts will tell you that those figures represent a 0.7 percent decline in sales compared with the prior year’s quarter. That might not seem like a terrible dip, but when you zoom in a little further, it spells trouble for one of Samsung’s most visible products: the Galaxy S9 (go. pcworld.com/smg9).

According to reports, Samsung sold the fewest number of S series flagship phones since 2012’s Galaxy S3 (go.pcworld.com/ sgs3), with a reported 31 million units shipping in 2018. To put that in perspective, the Galaxy S7 was the high-water mark for Samsung’s S flagship, with some 50 million sales. That means many people are either sticking with their S7s or switching to a different phone altogether. And that’s a problem, not just for Samsung but for all premium Android phone makers.

It’s not just that Apple sold more iPhones last quarter (go.pcworld.com/rcq2) than Samsung’s expected S9 sales for the entire year. That’s no surprise. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that consumers aren’t wowed by premium Android phones anymore. And unless 2019 brings some serious innovation, the buzz around premium Android phones may slip away forever.

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