Reports from South Korea suggest that neither the Samsung Galaxy S6 nor the LG G4 have met sales expectations.
This was a big year for South Korea’s two biggest smartphone manufacturers. Samsung had to come up with something special to overcome disappointment with the Galaxy S5, as well as a general slide in profits.
LG, meanwhile, needed to use momentum from positive reaction to the LG G3 to really enter the big leagues.
While both the Samsung Galaxy S6 and LG G4 turned out to be fine phones, however, neither has scaled the sales heights that its makers expected.
According to Business Korea, Samsung is expected to post 3.1 trillion (£1.76 billion) to 3.4 trillion won (£1.93 billion) in operating profit for the second quarter. That’s down 24 percent on the same period last year.
The reason for that underperformance, according to securities industry sources, is that Galaxy S6 sales fell short of expectations.
It’s a similar story for LG, with the industry lowering profit forecasts thanks to lower than expected LG G4 sales.
Given how strong these two phones turned out to be – particularly the Samsung Galaxy S6, which represented a radical overhaul of Samsung’s design philosophy – this is pretty dispiriting news for Android fans.
It’ll be particularly galling when they consider those ever-increasing iPhone sales. Apple sold more than 61 million smartphones in the first three months of 2015, with help from a booming Chinese market.
Read More: LG G4 vs Samsung Galaxy S6
With the iPhone 6S just months away from release, it seems unlikely that 2015 is going to get significantly better for Samsung and LG.
Check out how the Samsung Galaxy S6 stacks up to the competition in the video below.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.