Samsung’s Galaxy S smartphone has shipped some 10 million units since its June 2010 release date, according to the company. That meets Samsung’s sales target for the device, which faces stiff competition not only from the Apple iPhone but other Android offerings.
“Based on their brand power and their relationship with telecommunication companies, their numbers should be increasing steadily,” Young Park, an analyst at Woori Investment & Securities Co., told Bloomberg Jan. 3.
Samsung’s mobile-device strategy has been a particularly aggressive one. In addition to the Samsung Galaxy S, which the company introduced on multiple carriers, the company is also pushing into the tablet PC arena with its 7-inch Galaxy Tab tablet. Reports also hint it will unveil the Galaxy Player, a touch-screen multimedia device in the mode of the iPod Touch, during this week’s CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas.
The Galaxy Tab managed to sell more than 1 million units worldwide within two months of its first release. Combined with robust sales for the Galaxy S, that suggests Samsung has something of a lead among the various manufacturers trying to establish an Android-based device franchise.
Android has seen a rapid increase in adoption over the past year, with analysis firm comScore placing its October U.S. market share at 23.5 percent-one percentage point behind Apple’s iOS at 24.6 percent, and closing in on Research In Motion’s 35.8 percent slice of that particular pie. Samsung now makes up 32.1 percent of all Android phones sold, according to Gartner, beating out Motorola and HTC.
In that spirit, Android devices are expected to be front and center at CES. In addition to Samsung’s Galaxy Player, other products rumored to make an appearance include a Motorola tablet and 4G smartphone, HTC Thunderbolt and Shift 4G, and tablets from ViewSonic.
The Samsung Galaxy S includes a 1GHz processor, 16GB of memory and an ultra-crisp Super AMOLED screen. Carriers for the smartphone are offering their own hardware tweaks, such as the sliding QWERTY keyboard on Sprint’s Samsung Epic 4G. In a further step to compete with Apple, Samsung offers a preloaded Media Hub with movies and television shows for download.
Given the increasingly crowded Android market, it remains to be seen whether Samsung can translate its early gains into sustainable long-term momentum. For the moment, though, the company’s Galaxy sales seem to be in line with its own predictions.