Can Samsung’s New Galaxy Sell 100 Million Units to Challenge iPhone?

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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Samsung will soon release its new smartphone, which will probably be called the Galaxy S5. Based on the analysis of experts who follow the industry, the S5 will need to sell much better than the S4, the company’s current flagship. The S4 sold below expectations. If Samsung wants to prove it has come to market with a better device, the new Galaxy’s sales cannot lag well behind those of the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone, its primary rival. The new Samsung device will need to sell close to 100 million units to make it the leader in the global smartphone industry, or at least a worthy opponent to its only rival.

Based on an analysis by Bloomberg, the Galaxy S4’s sales were poor compared to the iPhone’s:

Since its release in April, Samsung has sold 63.5 million units of the S4, which features a 5-inch screen and 13-megapixel camera, according to the median estimate of three analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. That compares with 65.6 million for the predecessor S3, according to the analyst survey. Samsung doesn’t disclose shipment data for individual devices.

In Apple’s most recent quarter, it posted impressive sales of the iPhone that beat the figures from the previous year:

The Company sold 51 million iPhones, an all-time quarterly record, compared to 47.8 million in the year-ago quarter.

Apple likely will release a new iPhone 6 sometime between now and year-end. The Samsung Galaxy 5S will be in the market several months before that, which could help boost sales. However, if the past is any indication, the new iPhone will suck demand for other smartphones out of the market.

Apple’s annual sales pace for the iPhone is about 200 million units, and a new model could increase that rate. If the Galaxy 5S is going to be considered a success, it may not have to top that number. However, a showing of 60 million unit sales will indicate that Samsung has been unable to build a better iPhone.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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