Samsung Note 8 pre-orders outstrip expectations

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Samsung said on Tuesday that pre-orders for its new Galaxy Note 8 smartphone have been the highest ever for its flagship Note series, as it bids to recover from last year’s saga of fire-prone handsets.

Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung Electronics’ mobile communications business, told reporters at a media event that "the 395,000 units sold on the first day of pre-orders is a higher-than-expected figure. The figures for the first five days show that pre-orders [for the Note 8] are about 2.5 times those of the Note 7 last year."

South Korean firm Samsung is banking on the Note 8 to protect its market dominance, with the press conference taking place the same day as Apple is set to launch its eight-generation iPhone. Note 8 sales begin in the United States, South Korea and elsewhere on Friday.

Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung Electronics’ mobile communications business /Reuters Photo

In October 2016, Samsung axed the Note 7 after an earlier botched recall and re-release. It eventually said battery faults were to blame for the phones overheating and exploding.

The recall cost the firm an estimated 5.3 billion US dollars and was hugely damaging to its reputation.

Nevertheless, Samsung said it was positive about consumers buying a Note 8 with technological improvements.

"The Note 8 can bring symbolic closure to the Note 7 debacle. The success of the [Galaxy] S8 this year already showed that Samsung had gotten past the Note 7 incident, but a successful Note 8 product would just further drive the point home,” said Bryan Ma, an analyst with market researcher IDC.

Reuters Photo

A new era of premium-priced smartphones looks to have begun with the Note 8’s US price of 930 to 960 US dollars, including dialing and data plans, and the latest iPhone set to sell for more than 1,000 US dollars.

Apple is widely expected to unveil a special-edition iPhone with an edge-to-edge screen and augmented reality that will compete with the Note 8 for pre-holiday season sales in Western markets.

In China, the Note 8 is tasked with reviving fortunes in the world’s biggest smartphone market where local handset makers such as Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi reduced Samsung’s market share to three percent in the April-to-June period, according to the data from Counterpoint Research.

Koh said earlier that it would take Samsung time to recover in China, adding that the firm was considering changes in its senior management in the country and a revised market strategy.

Samsung is also hoping to launch a foldable handset next year, Koh said, although he admitted there were still technological problems to overcome.

"We are digging thoroughly into several issues we must overcome, as we don’t want to just make a few, sell a few and be done. We want to hear that Samsung made a very good product," he said.

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