It would appear that we have found the reason for the many rapid price cuts we’ve seen Samsung’s Galaxy Tab experience over the three months since its launch – the sell-through to members of the public has been “quite small”.
Samsung’s been performing the oldest trick in the book, in fact, quoting figures for units sold to retailers – rather than numbers actually sold on to users. Hence the bombastic announcements of “millions” of Tabs sold. Here’s a quote:
“Well, your question was on sell-in and sell-out. As you heard, our sell-in was quite aggressive and this first quarterly result was quite, you know, fourth-quarter unit [figure] was around two million. Then, in terms of sell-out, we also believe it was quite small”
Which means Samsung has indeed “sold” plenty of Galaxy Tabs to the shops and mobile networks, but the poor old shops haven’t subsequently been selling as many on to their customers. Hence the numerous PRICE CRASHES we’ve seen. It all makes sense.
Read the full quotes from Samsung over on the WSJ and many other places today. Thanks to everyone who mailed this in.
UPDATE:
The WSJ has added a correction to its post, claiming “small” was a mistranslation and that Samsung actually said sales were “smooth”.
Samsung executive Lee Young-hee said Galaxy Tab sales were “quite smooth,” according to a recording of the company’s conference call with analysts. This post relied on a transcript of the call, which quoted her erroneously as saying they were “quite small.” Samsung said the transcript, done by a third party and initially cited by a company spokesman, has since been corrected.
It’s smooth to use, the 1080p display is sharp, clear and bright, the device is extremely light and thin and therefore very pocketable and portable — much more so than other 5-inch phones we’ve used. And yet… we’re a bit unimpressed by the overall package…
A relatively high-spec smartphone, with a 4.5″ display running at 480 x 854 resolution and powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, plus the Ascend G510 arrives running Android 4.1.1 — albeit potentially hindered by Huawei only sticking 512MB of RAM inside it..
The Panasonic Eluga marks the company’s return to the European mobile phone scene years after several years of absence, and it’s come back to us with a moderately high-spec Android model that features a rather stylish, slim case.
Sony returns with an all-new mobile design for 2012, pairing a dual-core processor with a 720p display. It’s a lovely phone, but is it enough to end our Samsung and HTC obsession?
LG’s updated Prada phone comes with an absolutely crazy black & white theme, but is it just for fashionable suit wearers who want to make themselves look a bit more interesting?
leo
/ February 1, 2011“Samsung’s been performing the oldest trick in the book”: you mean “lying”?
On one side it’s a product developed for years by Apple ( I mean, Apple Inc. that invented computer mouse, windows…. you name it), and on the other, it’s a copycat product copied within 6 months by a not-good-at-anything state-supported bribing Korean cheap factory. Even Google warned that the OS is not for slate computer and yet they went for it because they think the consumers are idiots and can be wooed just by commercials and PR. Of course the sale number says everything!
And Korean are notorious for lying and cheating: Wie in women Golf and Huang in stem-cell research, and now Samsung in Tab sale number!
Gary C
/ February 1, 2011Not really lying, more like using the most pleasing data to grab the headlines. Classic hardware sales trick. Glad I didn’t write up any of those MILLIONS SOLD press releases.
Chris
/ February 1, 2011The real quote was “smooth”, NOT “small”. The person who transcribed it wrongly has corrected it now.
Gary C
/ February 1, 2011Oh dear. Thanks Chris. I’ll update this post so that future generations know the truth.
Anton Gully
/ February 1, 2011@leo – you might want to read up on the history of the Palo Alto Research Center who actually invented the things you’re attributing to Apple.
hecatae
/ February 16, 2011now £249 from HMV
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/samsung-galaxy-tab-16gb-249-hmv/877845
Gary C
/ February 16, 2011Christ, that’s not just a PRICE CRASH it’s a PRICE APOCALYPSE.