Despite the strong initial sales, reports out of Korea have claimed that sales of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ have been slower than its predecessors, the Galaxy S7.

While the Galaxy S8 and S8+ flew off the shelves in the first few weeks of their availability, their demand has gone down drastically since then. Due to this, many industry analysts believe that sales of the handset have actually been around 20 percent lower than that of the Galaxy S7.

An industry analyst claimed that while Samsung sold 12 million Galaxy S7 units in the first two months of its availability, the Korean company only managed to sell around 9.8 million units of the Galaxy S8 in the same timeframe.

A Samsung spokesperson has already refuted such claims though and said that the estimated sales of the Galaxy S8 are similar to that of the Galaxy S7. He also noted that the Galaxy S8 was launched in fewer markets than the Galaxy S7 after its launch which skews the number in Galaxy S7’s favour.

Irrespective of that though, Korean media claims that Samsung has decided to launch the Galaxy Note 8 a couple of weeks earlier than usual to counter the slow Galaxy S8 sales and the iPhone 8 launch.

While Samsung is expected to unveil the Galaxy Note 8 at IFA in Berlin on September 10th or later in the month, the company is now trying to see if it could release the device in late August itself. This would also allow the company to ensure a wide availability for the Galaxy Note 8 before the iPhone 8 is officially unveiled by Apple later in the month. Additionally, Samsung also wants to capitalise on the shortage of iPhone 8 in the first few weeks of its retail availability by launching the Note 8 early.