Samsung’s Galaxy Round, the company’s first phone with a curved AMOLED display, went on sale in South Korea in mid-October. According to local publication Daum, in the 40 days that have since passed, sales of the device have yet to break 10,000 units. To put that number into some perspective, the Note 3 sold half a million units in the 40 days after it launched, while the Vega Note did 200,000 units during the same span of time.
Why are people turned off by the Round? The previously mentioned report says that not a lot of stores are getting display units. The few stores that are, however, are attracting attention due to the strange nature of the device, but said attention isn’t translating into any meaningful sales.
Will the LG G Flex do better? Probably, because it’s going to go on sale in Europe and the United States in early 2014. While I doubt it’ll sell as well as a Galaxy S4, it’ll definitely push more than 10,000 units. Samsung was overly ambitious with their device, making a 5.7 inch 1080p panel, whereas LG made a 6.0 inch 720p panel. I can only assume that the LG panel is easier to make because it’s a less complicated part.
Why would you even want a curved phone? Marketing people have failed to convince the public why they should care other than to simply own a device that’s different from everything else on the market.