“It is true that initial responses are better than that of Galaxy S5. There are many customers making inquiries, although we are short in supply as we are still in the early stage. The somewhat expensive price is a flaw, though.”
This was the reply of an employee at a cell phone store in China’s largest electronics market, Huaqiang North, to the question asking about the popularity of Galaxy S6. He said around 40 were sold for four days after the 17th when Galaxy S6 sales started. While we were asking this question, a Chinese customer in his 50’s purchased a Galaxy S6 Edge.
An employee of a different store nearby said, “Galaxy S6 Edge is more popular than Galaxy S6, but supplies are barely left currently. Although they are popular, the price will be a bit high for an ordinary person to purchase.”
Samsung started Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S5 Edge sales in China’s major cities starting from April 17th. Galaxy S6 32GB was 822 dollars, Galaxy S6 Edge 32GB 980 dollars, 64GB 1080
Taking into consideration that the average annual income of Chinese college graduates is about 13850 dollars, they are not cheap. Moreover, since Chinese telecommunication companies including China Mobile have been cutting down subsidies through government policy, consumer expenses have grown.
Although it is expensive, the Galaxy S6 is becoming a big hit in Huaqiang North. There were not as many people on the 20th as there were on the 17th, the day it was released, though.Nevertheless, sales men spoke as one that good responses continued.
In one building specially handling used phones, assembling phones, and imitation phones, an imitation product of Galaxy S6 was already on sale. A saleswoman stately definitely that she will only show the product once she is paid, perhaps worried about being cracked down.
She explained that prices of Galaxy S6 imitations were 130 dollars for an A class imitation, 97 dollars for a B class, and 73 dollars for a C class. The classification criteria of classes A~C include display resolution, product performance, etc. The local guide told us that class A imitation was quite similar to the genuine product.
In Huaqiang North, smartphones of various makers such as Oppo, Vivo, Gionee, Coolpad, HTC, Huawei, Lenovo, and more other than Samsung Electronics, are distributed. Galaxy S6 is a strategy smartphone with which Samsung Electronics plans to overcome Chinese and Taiwanese enterprises, and reclaim the top spot in Chinese market shares. This is also the reason Samsung Electronics started the large-scale world tour, going around Shanghai, Shenyang, Chengdu, etc.
According to IDC, Samsung lost to Xiaomi and Apple in last year’s fourth quarter and was dropped to fifth place in China’s smartphone market shares. Local distribution businesses are also wondering whether Galaxy S6 and Edge will lead to Samsung Electronics’ revival in the Chinese market or not.
Staff Reporter An,Hocheon | hcan@etnews.com