06/20/2008, 10:00am, EDT
Friday, June 20thSamsung Soul outpaces iPhone in first month
Over one million units of Samsung's Soul designer phone have sold since it went on sale a month ago, the company says. Although limited to just Europe for its initial launch, the device has been one of the most popular phones in recent weeks and has sold better in this early stage than the iPhone managed in the first quarter of the year, when Apple sold 1.7 million units in three months.
The UK alone was responsible for more than a quarter of the Soul's sales for the month, according to the Korean company, with about 280,000 phones trading hands. Germany also had a disproportionately large number of sales at 150,000.
Despite its origins, the Soul has yet to be launched in Korea and is just now coming to KTF and SK Telecom in the country. China, Russia, and several smaller southeast Asian countries will also have access to the device.
The Soul is unusual in the market and is matched primarily by the LG Venus in its unusual use of a touchscreen in place of a conventional directional pad; the format lets applications change controls on the fly without the expense and size of using a touchscreen for the main display.
Filed under: iPhone
Other story tags: Samsung, SK Telecom, KTF, Soul
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Silly Claim
This is silly, there has been no inventory of iPhones to sell in the last couple of months.
Re: Silly Claim
They aren't talking the last couple of months. They compared the sales to the first quarter of this year. There were plenty of iPhones to be sold at that point.
been waiting
and all of those like me that didn't buy then either, waiting for 3g? silly claim.
30 hours
The "first quarter" that 1.7 million iPhones were sold in was the 30 hours from 6pm friday until end of day Saturday. Doesn't anyone remember all the clamoring that happened a year ago when the first official numbers were reported?
More Accurate Journalism!
I hate it when people just pull out numbers out their *** just to make a headline/article heard even if it means falsifying or manipulating the truth. Even worse sometimes because the writer just dislikes a product and falsifies or manipulates just to be right or trying to be anyway.
First of all, any phone will sell the most on it first month as that is when most of the hype and advertising are concentrated. Plus the fact that a lot of people have been anticipating its launch to make its purchase. So comparing the Souls first month to the iPhones 7th-10th (estimate) month is not a fair comparison. Now I don't know what the actual figure is for the first month for iphone but I I do remember the iPhone selling 500-700 thousand in its first weekend (2-3 days). That is more that half of what the Soul has done in a month.
Plus the iPhone was sold at around £200 ($399) compared to the Souls £FREE price.
Lastly the iPhone was at its launch sold only in one country and only by one carrier.
Conclusion: The iPhone sold almost as much in the first couple of days over what the Soul has done in a month, even though it was sold in one country by one carier and cost £200 as opposed to the Souls free price tag.
You do the math on who has done better.
Eh.. Price???
The big difference here is that the Samsung Soul is free on most tariffs, in the UK at least. In the US the iPhone was $4/599!! at launch... you can't compare these at all. Pointless.
Why iPhone?
Can't see why this device has been compared to iPhone in the first place. I can't believe anyone who considered buying iPhone or another touch device like those from HTC in the end found himself buying Samsung Soul. Different price points, different markets.
new iPhone
The big difference is that people knew the iPhone 3G was coming, so why buy an iPhone when it will be replaced shortly?
And as napple pointed out, price is a HUGE difference. If someone was wanting an iPhone, but couldn't raise the cash, they may buy a Soul. But if someone really wanted an iPhone, particularly in Europe where the 3G network is much better developed than in the U.S., they likely would wait for the iPhone 3G.
Let's see what the sales numbers are in 3-4 months once the iPhone 3G comes out.
Why compare?
Like the Mac, the iPhone is a premium product. It will never have the numbers/market share of the lower-end products. Why are people comparing figures of two different classes of product?
McD
first month
Also, how much can you really trust the "sales" numbers when a product is first released. Is that the number of units Samsung shipped into the sales channel to build stock at the retail outlets? Or is it the number of phones actually put into the end user's hands?