Sales of new Samsung phone in China clouded by negative consumer views

Expert said on Tuesday that the sales of Samsung’s new flagship model Galaxy S8 will be clouded by negative consumer sentiment, weak marketing and bilateral tensions, following reports that the smartphone manufacturer has acquired compulsory quality certification for its new gadget that is believed to be the S8.

On February 26, Samsung Electronics said that it would launch its next key device, the Galaxy S8, on March 29.

The launch came in the aftermath of a battery- fire scandal, which forced the company to recall the Galaxy Note 7 last October around the world.

That caused a loss of consumer trust, wiping out $ 5.3 billion of operating profit, and allowing Apple’s iPhone to overtake it in sales, according to Reuters in February.

A Samsung Note 4 smartphone that was left charging overnight exploded last week and injured the face of a 5- year old girl in Southwest China’s Guizhou Province, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday.

Safety incidents have caused the brand value of the company to drop in the eyes of Chinese consumers, according to an online survey conducted by the Global Times that had 12,167 responses from February 2026.

Samsung’s ranking plummeted from last year’s No. 7 spot on the favorable list to No. 6 spot on the disliked list, with 7.6 percent of the respondents expressing dislike for the brand, according to the survey released Tuesday.

Topping the favorable list were Mercedes- Benz, Apple and BMW while McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut led the disliked list.

Zhao Ziming, an industry expert at Beijing- based market consultancy Analysys International, said while the S8 would be undoubtedly the

best- selling flagship model sold globglob- ally in the first half, consumer r mistrust, weak marketing and bilateral tensions between China and South Korea will overshadow the S8’ s sales pects in the Chinese market. "Samsung might be disappointed with the S8’ s China sales. The damage of the Note 7 problem can’t be underestimated. Average consumers tend to generalize and believe that Samsung smartphones are explosion- prone, rather than certain models,” Zhao told the Global Times on Tuesday. The company’s weak marketing, compared with China’s domestic smartphone makers, and the bilateral tensions between China and South Korea over the US military’s Terminal High- Altitude Area Defense battery in South Korea are all factors af- fecting S8 sales, added Zh Zhao.

Samsung still led globalg shipmentsments in 2016, followe followed by Apple in secondd place, accord according to thirdparty market intelligencetellige firm IDC in February.

But the shipments of these companies declined respectively by 3 percent and 7 percent as they lost global market shares to rivals.

In China, 2016 saw the rise of domestic mobile phone producers. OPPO, Huawei, Vivo, Apple and Xiaomi were the top five vendors by shipment.

Zhao said that shipments are just one facet in measuring a smartphone maker. “For the segment covering high- end phones priced at above 3,500 yuan ($ 507), the launch of the high- end S8 should be able to regain some ground lost,” Zhao said.