NewSamsung plays ‘hard to get’ to get Chinese phone buyers hooked
Pre-order period for new S8 and S8+ models open until May 24, with customers only able to reserve between 10 and 11am, with a 99 yuan deposit
Samsung has officially kicked off pre-order sales for its latest flagship Galaxy S8 smartphones in China, as new research data suggests the South Korean technology giant’s sales more than halved during the first quarter of the year in the country, as its hangover continues from last year’s massive product recall.
The pre-order period lasts until May 24, and requires consumers to make a 99 yuan (US$14.35) as deposit at a Samsung retail store, or online via e-commerce platforms, Tmall.com, JD.com and Suning.com.
The start of advance bookings for the S8 models is a month later than in South Korea, where pre-orders for it and its larger model exceeded 1 million units in just 10 days from April 7.
The company is trying to play a typical industry “hard-to-get” tactic in China this time, said analysts, as it will only offer very limited numbers of handsets for pre-sale, as well as restricting taking early bookings to between 10 and 11 am until the May 24 deadline.
On Tmall.com, they started for the S8 and S8+ on Wednesday, and that day’s allocation of around 1,000 were sold out in minutes. Only 124 of the 6 gigabyte memory S8+ were made available for advanced booking on Tmall.com on Wednesday and Thursday.
So-called such “hunger” marketing-led product launches had become routine for smartphone makers. Competitors including Xiaomi and Smartisan have also just launched their latest models, said Wang Xiaofeng, an analyst from Forrester Research.
