Galaxy S5 Flops, Shakeup at Samsung Looming

While it’s old news that Samsung got beat up in the mobile industry this past third quarter, it’s becoming clearer just how poorly the electronics giant performed. A new report from the Wall Street Journal tells us that the Galaxy S5 was a much bigger failure than the company had expected – and that a shakeup in the company’s mobile division might be on the horizon.

According to the report, Samsung surveyed its carriers around the globe to see about how much demand they anticipated for the S5 – but the catch was that they weren’t going to be responsible for unsold devices. The result was that Samsung made 20 percent more Galaxy S5 units than it had for the Galaxy S4.

From there, things got worse, since Samsung sold 40 percent fewer Galaxy S5 handsets than they did of the Galaxy S4. The report elaborates, saying Samsung had “about 12 million units sold to consumers in the first three months since April compared with about 16 million units for the preceding flagship phone, the Galaxy S4.” The result was a whole lot of leftover phones gathering dust in warehouses, and Samsung throwing more money at marketing to move the devices.

Finally, the report explains that the mobile division may soon be overseen by a different executive at the company – co-CEO J.K. Shin might lose the gig, and it may head over to co-CEO B.K. Yoon. Shin, as the report points out, has been in charge of mobile for both Samsung’s great successes in the field as well as its recent tumble from the top. It would be interesting to see, then, how Yoon would handle the division in his place.

To my eyes, Samsung may have failed in mobile due to a lack of imagination, but the problems at the company don’t stop there. Every other day, there seems to be some new, crazy device that fills no niche or need that I can determine. The result is a product portfolio that’s bursting, but doesn’t necessarily fit any particular category that needs fitting. The Gear VR headset is just such a device, which is a mix between virtual reality, gaming, mobile phone, and personal movie theater. As interesting as it is, the device’s full cost is close to $800, and it’s of pretty limited appeal. Where does that fit into the company’s overall strategy? Did it come from the mobile division, home theater, or gaming? And what about the weird, curved, SIM-capable Gear S smartwatch? Who’s that geared towards? What is Samsung doing?

As the weeks and months go on, we’ll learn more about what Samsung does to meet its mobile crisis. In the meantime, get ready to hear some more rumors about the Galaxy S6.

[Source: Wall Street Journal]