Omar Khan launches Samsung into the Galaxy at the original Galaxy S launch in 2010 (photo: K. Sandler)
In the earlier years of the Android operating system it appeared that there was going to be some fierce competition as far as manufacturers were concerned.
The Motorola Droid came out of the gate like gangbusters for Verizon, The Motorola Droid X was almost as hot. Motorola even released the first Android tablet, the Motorola Xoom on Verizon and it appeared they were making a huge comeback.
HTC, a popular manufacturer overseas, had only really seen the light of day on America’s 4th wireless carrier, T-Mobile, that was, until, Android. HTC was the manufacturer on the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1. They followed that with the G2 and they were also the white label partner, again with T-Mobile, for the MyTouch brand of devices. They also had the HTC Hero on Sprint and the HTC Droid Eris on Verizon. HTC picked up a lot of Android steam with the HTC Droix Incredible, also on Verizon.
Then there was Samsung.
Samsung introduced a few Android phones right at the onset like the Samsung Moment, and the Samsung Behold and Behold II. Then, with great fanfare and a magical performance by B.O.B. my good friend Omar Khan stood on the stage in New York City and introduced the world to the Samsung Galaxy S. That began an avalanche of huge launches, huge sales and a line that’s already up to number4. The Galaxy S series is Samsung’s high end Android device. In 2010 the company launched the first 7″ Android tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab and continued to follow that device up, with what’ become the hottest Android tablet franchise.
That’s why it shouldn’t surprise you that Samsung is still forecasting unit sales near 290 million for this year. It’s not clear whether they will hit that goal or not, there seems to be conflicting reports on the sales for the Samsung Galaxy S4.
That may be the reason that the consumer electronics super power scaled back their 2014 forecast to 330 million. Yes I just said that they scaled back, their forecast. They originally planned on 360 million unit sales for smartphones in 2014. Regardless, that’s an amazing number.
Ubergizmo reports that Samsung plans to achieve this goal by introducing more entry level phones. This may be because Google has listened to concerns from their manufacturers and made Android 4.4 Kit Kat compatible with lower end devices.
The 330 million unit figure is for smartphones only and doesn’t include their tablet forecast. Samsung is reportedly working on tablets with screens as large as 12.2″. They also plan on introducing more Android and Windows tablets next year.
