Samsung boldly expects 60 million Galaxy S8 unit shipments, 100 million J-series sales

Samsung seems to have impressively bounced back from embarrassing Galaxy Note 7 scandals already, at least as far as overall financial gains are concerned, never suffering much in terms of brand confidence anyway.

But the real test is yet to come, and we’re all curious about the market’s response to a prospectively game-changing Galaxy S8. As always, its makers expect the world from the “next big thing”, reportedly asking supply partners for enough components to build and sell 60 million units this year alone.

Just how ambitious is that number? Not as ambitious as 100 million, which is apparently the 2017 shipment goal of the low to mid-end Galaxy J lineup. Meanwhile, the upper mid-range Galaxy A series, now consisting of water-resistant models, has its sights set on a “modest” 20 million sales target.

To put those figures in the right context, let’s look back at the Galaxy S7, S6 and S5, which reportedly sold between 45 and 48 million copies apiece, preceded by the most successful S in history, the 70-million-worth GS4.

Of course, the Note family wasn’t that big in 2013, the high-end smartphone industry didn’t know what saturation meant, and the budget flagship concept sounded like a pipe dream.

As for entry-level J devices, they badly need lower price points than last year to fend off an avalanche of sub-$250 China-made killers, slowly making their way even stateside. Bottom line, it’s all doable for the global smartphone champ, but it’s not going to be easy.

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A sooner Galaxy S8 launch with a different model number

We’ve been triangulating Samsung’s next move after it had to suffer through the Galaxy Note 7 recall. A burst of Galaxy S8 chatter was quick to surround the chaebol’s Note 7 introduction and then its recall announcement, faster than previous years. ...

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Market research confirms Samsung Galaxy S7 is comfortably outselling the S6

Right off the bat, it was crystal clear Samsung had a winner, nay, two winners on its hands this year. But we got the same first impression from the 2015 Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, and their box-office scores certainly didn’t live up ...

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Cricket ups the savings ante with 50 percent off Samsung Galaxy S6, S5, and S4

And the holiday deals keep piling up at possibly the most generous US mobile carrier this Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with the third Cricket special offer in effect before the first two could expire.Yes, you can still get $100 shopping cards when you switch to AT&T’s prepaid daughter operator by December 6, as well as phones like the Motorola Moto E and ...

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Galaxy S4 Google Play edition now getting Lollipop

Back in August, Google retired the Galaxy S4 Google Play edition. It had been one of only three phones to survive the big July GPe purge – the other two, the One M8 and Moto G, continue to be listed on Google Play to this day (though neither’s currently available for purchase). But even with the GS4 GPe put out to pasture, support for the phone’s far from over, and tonight we witness it ...

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Don’t expect Lollipop for other Samsung Androids until 2015

Yesterday we saw Samsung finally get its Lollipop update ball rolling, beginning distribution of Android 5.0 for the Galaxy S5. While initial availability was highly region-restricted, it was still a big step forward. But what does the existence of that update spell for updates designed for other Samsung hardware? At the time, we speculated a little about what yesterday’s development could mean for future US carrier-specific GS5 Lollipop updates, but today we’re looking at the rest of ...

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Verizon’s Galaxy S4 gets a small OTA update

It’s not often we hear of updates for 2013 phones these days, with 2015 (and with it, CES) just a month away at this point. That also means that when these updates do come around, they’re bound to be important, and for some people this Verizon Galaxy S4 OTA update will be very well received.So what’s this update about? Well, according to Verizon, it’s to fix an “intermittent power cycle issue”. That’s fancy talk for “the phone kept crashing, so we decided that we had to update it before we got more angry phone calls.”Additionally, a VPN ...

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Take a look at Lollipop on the Galaxy S4

The leaked Lollipop builds are coming in fast and hard. Just yesterday we were oohing and aahing over a couple of leaked screenshots of the LG G3′s update, and now we’re given a full hands-on tour of 2013′s Samsung Galaxy S4 Lollipop update with enough pictures and video to tide even the pickiest people over.In the update, the Galaxy S4 is updated to Nature UX 3.0 (at least the I9500 model), but there’s no word on the I9505 at this ...

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Galaxy Note 4 may be banned from US sales along with other Samsung phones

Samsung is definitely not having its best couple of quarters when it comes to its economics, but we wish this was the only drama the Korean giant faces right now. We’ve seen the continuous patent lawsuits that the company has lost against ...

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Metal doesn’t always make a phone better

The debate over build quality, design, and materials in the smartphone realm will never end. The matter is largely, if not entirely, objective and typically boils down to preference and personal experiences.No one material is wholly better than another. Plastic bends, scratches, cracks, and it often feels incredibly cheap. Metal typically feels nicer and gives phones some much-needed heft, but scratches and dings even worse than plastic. Unlike easily replaceable plastic battery doors, metal usually is not ...

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It’s time Samsung gets creative once again

Samsung has long been the king of Android.Its Galaxy S smartphone has far outsold any of its competitors’ Android handsets by the millions, quarter after quarter, year after year. It’s aided in pushing mobile hardware and Android as a platform forward, and has even attempted to fork the Android ecosystem by instilling its own ecosystem within Android, selling movies, music, and other digital content through its own store.Samsung has, for the better part of its smartphone career, largely steered the direction of smartphones and led the industry. That is, until recently.Over the ...

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Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play edition has disappeared: and then there were two

Google Play edition devices have been slowly picked off over the last couple months, with the last ones to go being the HTC One (M7), Sony Z Ultra, and LG G Pad 8.3 back in early July. Couple that with the unknown fate of the Samsung Galaxy S5 Google Play edition, and things are looking pretty glum for this line of phones. It hasn’t ended with that though, with the Galaxy S4 Google Play edition removed earlier ...

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Google Play edition hardware sees deep discounts in retailer sale

Last week saw Google take the chopping block to its selection of Play edition devices for sale, pulling the HTC One, Sony Z Ultra, and the LG G Pad 8.3 from its listings. While that may be a sign that new, more modern GPe hardware is on its way, it was still a little shocking to see some of those models retired after just over half a year. If you’re wishing you jumped at the chance to buy one when they were available, we’ve got just the deal for you, as retailer Expansys puts these former ...

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MetroPCS phones: which phones should you consider?

With all the smartphones available, picking your next phone can be a serious challenge.Each month, multiple new phones are added to the mix, all with varying levels of specifications, different software, new features, different degrees of build quality, and designs. To make it worse, a lot of the newer – and sometimes older – phones overlap one another. For instance, some of HTC’s newest smartphones (the Desire 610 and One mini 2, for instance), while slightly different, cover the exact same ground and target the same demographics.The other factor to consider is your carrier of ...

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Samsung leaked document provides Android 4.4.3 update timeframe for Galaxy S5 and S4

Samsung hasn’t always been the best with Android updates on its devices, especially considering the sheer number of phones and tablets it manufactures on a yearly basis. The wait’s always been the most minimal on flagship devices, however, and it seems that the Galaxy S5 (and last year’s Galaxy S4) ...

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