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The Samsung Galaxy S20 5G series is bombing in the US

By Joshua Swingle

Published: May 01, 2020, 11:06 AM

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The Samsung Galaxy S20 5G series is bombing in the US

The Samsung Galaxy S20 series has been on sale for almost two months now and the latest data suggests the flagship devices are significantly less popular than previous-gen models in the United States.

The Galaxy S20 series is selling terribly

New market data published by M Science (via PCMag) reveals Galaxy S20 series sales are currently tracking much lower than Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S9 sales were at the same number of weeks after launch.

The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S10 peaked at 500,000 and 400,000 weekly sales during their second week after launch and consistently stayed above the 200,000 sales threshold throughout the first ten weeks of sales.

The new Galaxy S20 series, for comparison, failed to surpass 200,000 sales during its best week and has stayed consistently below the 100,000 mark since week 4. There was a slight uptick in sales last week, but that happened for the entire market and was attributed to the arrival of stimulus checks.

M Science believes the poor performance is directly related to the lack of 5G networks across the United States. Buyers are being forced to pay much more for their flagships this year but are not yet getting all of the advertised benefits.

“I don’t think we’ve seen the full effect of those loyal Samsung users switching from the S9 or S10 to the S20 as of yet,” said Mark Bachman, senior analyst at M Science.

Samsung has boosted the share of 5G phones, though

The bright side of this situation is that Samsung has single-handedly boosted the adoption of 5G across the United States. Sales of compatible smartphones have skyrocketed since the Galaxy S20 series launched and now account for around 20% of all units sold.

The US adoption rate is higher than in China, where 5G smartphone sales have only just reached the 15% share of weekly sales. But not everything is as rosy as it looks because things could quickly change.

Although the Galaxy S20 series has helped boost 5G demand, the drastically higher market share is also attributed to a massive decrease in 4G smartphone sales since store closures in March. The latter typically stands at 700,000 units per week but has since dropped to roughly half as much.

Samsung Galaxy S20 sales are slowly flattening which means the share of 5G smartphones should start dropping again, although the recently launched OnePlus 8 may have some effect over the coming weeks.

Another boost isn't expected until the iPhone 12 launch

Long-term, Bachman doesn’t expect another sudden spike in demand for 5G smartphones until the iPhone 12 launch in October or November. Rumor has it that the high-end Pro models will offer Sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G whereas the cheaper devices may stick to Sub-6GHz.

The upcoming iPhone lineup is also expected to be noticeably cheaper than the Galaxy S20 series, which could prove crucial given the current economic climate. That latest report has the iPhone 12 (Mini) starting at only $649 in the United States while the iPhone 12 (Plus) might go for $749.

The premium iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, on the other hand, looks set to cost $999 and $1,099 respectively.

For comparison, Samsung fills in the $649 and $749 with the previous-gen Galaxy S10 Lite and Galaxy S10. The newer Galaxy S20 starts at $999, which increases to $1,199 and $1,399 for the Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S20 Ultra.