Samsung Electronics has decided to produce 10 million Galaxy S8s (tentative name), which are Samsung Electronics’ next strategic Smartphones, as an initial output. It also has decided on its production schedule when it is going to receive components, mass-produce Galaxy S8s, and release Galaxy S8s in February, March, and April respectively.
According to an industry on the 2nd, it is understood that Samsung Electronics announced such information of its production schedule to its partners.
“We received an order from Samsung Electronics to start delivering components for Galaxy S8 starting from February.” said representatives for multiple industries. “This indicates that Samsung Electronics is ready to mass-produce Galaxy S8s.”
Samsung Electronics is going to mass-produce and release Galaxy S8 in March and April respectively. Usually Samsung Electronics sells its Smartphones globally at the same time it makes announcements on them and this is its strategy to directly lead consumers’ early attention to actual sales. Due to this reason, Samsung Electronics already starts manufacturing its Smartphones one or two months before it releases them and this is why time of mass-production is about one month faster than actual release date.
10 million Galaxy S8s are going to be produced as initial output. Samsung Electronics is going to produce 5 million of them in March and April respectively and release them globally at the same time. 10 million is an initial output for Galaxy S7 that set a successful record and this indicates that Samsung Electronics is confident that Galaxy S8 will also make positive performance as well. Between personnel that had participated in actual development, they evaluate Galaxy S8 as more superior than Galaxy S7 in performance and design.
Initially Samsung Electronics was thinking about releasing Galaxy S8 little bit earlier. However schedule for mass-production and release date were postponed as there were unexpected incidences regarding quality of Galaxy Note 7 in last year and as certain specifications such as fingerprint recognition function and dual-camera were changed during a development stage of Galaxy S8. Galaxy S7 was released in March of last year.
As final specifications and production schedule are finalized, Samsung Electronics is getting ready to release Galaxy S8 soon and industries are focused on whether or not Galaxy S8 will bring positive performance.
Samsung Electronics made whopping $5.86 billion (7 trillion KRW) in loss in last year due to discontinuation of Galaxy Note 7 and this was also a direct hit for Samsung Electronics’ partners as well.
As Samsung Electronics is set to mass-produce Galaxy S8, it is facing an opportunity to recover its performance.
It is predicted that there will be huge changes to design and performance of Galaxy S8. First of all, entire front side of Galaxy S8 will be covered with ‘full screen’ without any bezel (edge that covers a screen) and there will be two different models of Galaxy S8 with different sizes of displays. Fingerprint recognition module will be placed on the back of Galaxy S8 and iris recognition camera will be newly equipped to the front of Galaxy S8. Although Samsung Electronics was considering rear dual-camera, which had drawn attention from industries, until the end, it decided not to use it due to low usefulness compared to increase in unit cost.
Regarding mass-production and release date of Galaxy S8, Samsung Electronics said that it cannot disclose any information regarding its new product yet.
Staff Reporter Yun, Keonil | benyun@etnews.com & Staff Reporter Song, Junyoung | songjy@etnews.com & Staff Reporter Ham, Jihyeon | goham@etnews.com