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Samsung's Galaxy S22 series is proving extremely popular in an absolutely crucial market

By Adrian Diaconescu

Published: Feb 23, 2022, 10:31 AM

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Samsung's Galaxy S22 series is proving extremely popular in an absolutely crucial market

Just in case those massive US shipping delays didn't make it abundantly clear, Samsung's newest ultra-high-end smartphones are off to a flying start at the box-office. That's not only true for the US, mind you, as the company is today celebrating a major achievement in another huge market.

Despite joining the party a little later than early adopters across many other regions and countries, Galaxy S22, S22+, and S22 Ultra buyers in India have apparently jumped at the opportunity to order a new phone with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processing power, breaking all of Samsung's past pre-booking flagship records.

512GB Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra for $1119.99 instead of $1399.99

Get the 512GB Galaxy S22 Ultra at up to $280 off with enhanced trade-in credit for a used Galaxy S21 Ultra also available, as is a $160 credit for a device with a cracked screen.

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Did Samsung set its global expectations too low?

In total, the S22 series racked up over 70,000 local pre-orders in under 12 hours, somehow outselling not only last year's fairly unpopular Galaxy S21 lineup but also the far more successful S20 and S10 trios, as well as the S9 duo from all the way back in 2018.

Of course, "pre-bookings" and sales are not quite the same thing, but the world's largest handset vendor wants you to know it is fully "committed" to getting all the 70K devices (and presumably, many more) on customers' doorsteps "as early as possible."

With special pre-order discounts offered for Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Buds 2 units purchased alongside Galaxy S22-series phones, Samsung can definitely hope to keep those numbers high until March 10, when Indian pre-bookings are scheduled to end in anticipation of an actual release the next day.

Samsung Galaxy S22+

128GB S22+ with up to $700 trade-in

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Samsung Galaxy S22

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Given that the global pre-launch expectation was that the S22 family would outsell the S21 and possibly S20 rosters but not the S10 and S9 lineups as well, it's certainly impressive to hear about the company's new all-time record in one of the world's largest smartphone markets.

Samsung's fans may not want to do their victory dance just yet

Unfortunately, with no real term of comparison to previous records and early pre-booking figures for Galaxy S22 forerunners, we can't know exactly how big of an improvement this 70K tally is. Perhaps most importantly, there's also no way to be sure this impressive pace will be maintained throughout the entire pre-order period, let alone beyond it.

After all, the Galaxy S21 series was initially declared a hit too before it became obvious that Samsung actually had a pretty serious flop on its hands. Nonetheless, the chaebol managed to boost its overall Q1 2021 sales in India compared to the first quarter of the previous year, and thanks among others to the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3, its regional Q3 and Q4 results were also not bad.

Will the Galaxy S22 series help Samsung beat Xiaomi for India's gold medal position?

In order to dethrone Xiaomi and become the nation's number one player again, Samsung does need to step up both its high-end and mid-range game, and at least for the time being, it looks like the Galaxy S22, S22+, and S22 Ultra could help with the former.

According to the latest Counterpoint Research report, the market's "premium" segment is comfortably dominated by Apple, despite iPhones still not being popular enough to propel the Cupertino-based tech giant among the top five overall vendors in India.

Apart from Xiaomi, Realme is also leading Samsung at the moment in this very important region, with Vivo not so far behind in fourth place either. For what it's worth, the average selling price of Galaxy handsets also reached a new Indian record in 2021, and if the Galaxy S22 family will indeed prove highly successful, the company's overall profit margins have no way to go but up.

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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.