Number of preorders for Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus has surpassed one million and this is the first time when number of preorders for domestic Smartphones surpassed one million.
According to Samsung Electronics and mobile telecommunication industries, it is calculated that there are total of 1,004,000 preorders for Galaxy S8 series just in South Korea from the 7th until the 17th. This indicates that there were about 91,200 preorders on average per day.
This number is the biggest ever for Smartphones that were released in South Korea and it is expected that it will be recorded as a new history.
Previous to Galaxy S8 series, Galaxy Note 7 had the most number of preorders at about 400,000 for 13 days. Amount of preorders for Galaxy S8 series is about 2.5 times more than the amount of preorders for Galaxy Note 7. Based on daily average (30,000 for Galaxy Note 7), daily average of preorders for Galaxy S8 series is about 3 times more than the daily average of preorders for Galaxy Note 7.
Compared to the number of preorders for Galaxy S7 series (200,000 for a week) that was released during first half of last year, number of preorders for Galaxy S8 series is about 5 times more than the number of preorders for Galaxy S7 series. Even number of preorders for Apple’s iPhones, which has not been announced yet, never surpassed one million.
Industries predicted that there was a high chance that number of preorders for Galaxy S8 series would surpass one million as number of preorders surpassed 500,000 and 728,000 within just two days and six days from the first day of preorder for Galaxy S8 series respectively.
Samsung Electronics has postponed the date when free gifts are given to people who have made preorders for Galaxy S8 series from the 24th of this month to the end of next month when amount of supplies it had prepared was gone in just four days as Galaxy S8 Plus 128GB model recorded high number of preorders than expectations.
This craze towards Galaxy S8 series is a circumstantial evidence that consumers have high expectations towards design and functions of Galaxy S8 series.
Samsung Electronics has included many new high-tech functions such as 18.5:9 Infinity Display, ‘Samsung Dex’ that allows Smartphones to be used as PCs, variety of biometrics such as iris, fingerprint, and face recognition functions, and AI (Artificial Intelligence) interface called ‘Bixby’.
Besides these, fact that Samsung Electronics has improved safety of its Smartphones by carrying out tests on 8 types of batteries in order to wipe out insecurity of consumers after ignition incidences regarding Galaxy Note 7 and popularity of ‘Orchid Gray’ that is applied for the first time on Galaxy S8 series have also played roles in increasing number of preorders.
Ratio of preorders leading to actual activation for Galaxy S series is relatively high. Last year, this ratio for Galaxy Note 7 exceeded 70%. It is predicted that ratio for Galaxy S8 series will be between 70 and 80%.
“This amazing record will be a record that will not be broken for awhile.” said a representative for a mobile network provider. “It seems that high level of perfection of Galaxy S8 series and the fact that number of demands that is on standby for premium Smartphones due to Galaxy Note 7 have played roles in having number of preorders surpass one million.”
Galaxy S8 series will be released in South Korea, the U.S., and Canada on the 21st. It will be released in 50 countries including Europe and other 120 countries on the 28th and in May respectively.
Staff Reporter Choi, Jaepil | jpchoi@etnews.com