A new report says that Samsung Galaxy S5 sales are much lower than expected, resulting in a surplus of unsold supply.
Microsoft Black Friday Tech Deals
The Wall Street Journal's report states that the phone appears to have sold 12 million units in its first three months, which sounds like a good figure. However, this is around 4 million fewer units than the Galaxy S4, and 40 percent fewer than projected.
Sales did grow in the U.S., the company's biggest market, but dropped over 50 percent in China, a potentially much larger market with room for growth. According to WSJ, the poor performance could lead to a major shakeup of leadership as the company's profits and stock have taken a hit over the difficult year.
The smartphone market has slowed across the board, likely due to the rapidly increased proliferation of the devices. Samsung reportedly had plenty of stock "piling up in the warehouses" due to its projections, and had to spend more advertising money to sell the excess supply. It's a rough year for competition, as well, especially with only a slight jump between the Galaxy S4 and S4-the iPhone finally grew in size, and HTC's One M8 has been very well-received. In addition to changing its leadership, Samsung may have to rethink its next Galaxy iteration to rejuvenate sales.