Samsung’s Suspicious Galaxy III Pre-order Numbers

There’s no arguing that Samsung’s mobile phones are popular, but their announcement of phenomenally high pre-orders for the upcoming Galaxy III phone are a bit…misleading. The internet is slobbering all over itself over reports that Samsung has already seen nine million pre-orders for the next Galaxy phone… but have rather quiet about the fact that the pre-orders come from carriers, not customers. Reuters says:

Samsung Electronics Co has received some 9 million pre-orders for its third-generation Galaxy S smartphone from more than 100 global carriers, the Korea Economic Daily reported on Friday.

What this means is, the pre-orders don’t necessarily represent money in the bank for Samsung. If the carriers don’t sell those phones, they go back to Samsung and no money is made for them, but they’re still technically pre-orders. Here’s a bit from The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple:

When Apple reports its pre-orders for a new iPhone, it uses the number of phones ordered by end users. If Apple played this type of silly game, they could add on all of the orders from AT&T, Verizon and all of its carriers from around the world. And if they did that, the number of pre-orders would still be skewed in Apple’s favor.

This is the same trick RIM used when they released the PlayBook and, in time, it served them very poorly. This is not to say that Samsung won’t sell a ton of Galaxy III phones, but the way numbers are deceptively presented doesn’t just make one shake their head. It makes one wonder what the real pre-orders are when one only counts consumers… because we still don’t know.

Source: The Loop

With help from: Reuters

Corey has been been a tech journalist with a focus on Apple since 1998 and has written for The Loop, MacHome magazine, and as games contributor for The Mac Bible, and co-hosts the iGame Radio Podcast. He works as a corporate consultant and professional musician in Ottawa, Ontario.