Samsung lowers its smartphone sales expectations for 2014

According to a published report Monday out of Korea, Samsung is lowering its expectations for smartphone sales in 2014. The Korean based OEM started to see sales of its flagship Samsung Galaxy S4drop below forecasts a few weeks ago, and Samsung apparently expects to see this downtrend throughout the rest of its smartphone business. According to industry sources, Samsung has sliced its smartphone sales expectations from 360 million for 2014, down to 330 million. That is a decline in expectations of more than 8%.

Wisely, Samsung is lowering its expectations on how many Samsung Galaxy S5 units it will sell next year. Sounds like Samsung's bean counters had fallen into the trap of extrapolating the success of the Samsung Galaxy S II and Samsung Galaxy S III to determine Samsung Galaxy S4 sales. But nothing lasts forever and Samsung did not count on the early success of the HTC One, which earlier this year gave Samsung a run for its money in the high-end Android smartphone niche. By the time HTC One sales cooled off, the Galaxy S4 had lost its momentum.

Samsung says that it will focus on mid-range handsets and tablets in 2014. Meanwhile, the company expects to sell 300 million smartphones this year. With the downward revision, 2014 should show a 10% increase in sales of its intelligent phones in 2014. That would be the slowest year-over-year growth in smartphone sales for Samsung ever since the smartphone sales boom started.

And while this could be the start of a period of slowing growth for Samsung, it just could be a case of Sammy following in the footsteps of its top rival. Apple has made a name for itself on Wall Street by under-promising and over-delivering. And after seeing how this has worked for Apple over the years, Samsung might have already deployed this strategy by cutting its expectations for the Galaxy S5 and its total smartphone sales for next year.

source: ETNews (translated) via AndroidGuys