Last year will not go down in history as a good year for Samsung premium smartphones, especially if the fiasco with the Galaxy Note 7 is taken into account. Sales of high-end smartphones fell below 30%, after a trend that started a few years ago.
In the second quarter of 2013, Samsung released the Galaxy S4 at a time when sales of high-end smartphones reached 75% of the total phones sold worldwide. 2013 was the year that marked the decline in sales of Samsung's premium phones, which gradually fell to below 40% by 2015.
Now the high-end phones that are sold for only 29%, a drop of 11% in just two years. It is worth noting that Samsung had carried out the recall of a flagship smartphone last year and focused largely on selling more S7 and S7 Edge to cover the difference.
The numbers are for the first quarter of the current year, Samsung can still change its fortunes with the launch of the Galaxy S8 and S8+, which is scheduled for this year. The arrival of a new flagship from Samsung will also make its predecessors even more attractive, given that the prices of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge will certainly drop and many offers will convince some customers to buy the powerful smartphone of the past year.
Given that we are discussing the topic of pricing, a recent report showed that Samsung devices sold on average $232 worldwide in 2016. This figure fell by 19.7% compared to $289 in 2015, while Apple's average selling price for the past year increased by 7% compared to 2015, reaching $645. This should not be surprising given that Apple does not manufacture entry‑level smartphones and more affordable products, as the cheapest product it offers costs $399 and is the 32GB variant of the iPhone SE.
