With an impressive spec sheet, impeccable design (though still plastic), a reworked minimalistic interface and hype created by the expectations the mobile tech world had placed on the device after others failed to meet those same expectations, was it going to impress? Yes it did. It is too early to tell since the device is yet to go on sale anywhere outside its home market of Korea but there, it is breaking every sort of internal records set by its predecessors like the LG G2. It is not the kind of records that dominant player Samsung’s popular Galaxy S and Galaxy Note devices have been posting but it is something that the teams involved with the device at LG and fans around the world would be proud of.
The LG G3, the company’s 2014 flagship device managed to sell between 20,000 and 30,000 units a day since it was officially launched in Korea through various carriers just under a week ago. That huge interest led to a cumulative total of at least 100,000 units flying off the shelves in under 5 days according to the Korea IT Times.
The report in the Times quotes LG’s new-found aggressive marketing spirit and the device’s specs and quality as the factors that have endeared it to the Korean market and a repeat of the same is expected when the device hits several global markets like the US and European markets where it is eagerly awaited according to the company.
Last year’s flagship, the LG G2, was only moving around 10,000 units per day and as you can see the G3 is taking that count to a whole new level. LG only managed to sell 600,000 units of the G2 in Korea in the first quarter of the device being available whereas rival Samsung sold 500,000 Galaxy S4 units in just two months in the same market.
LG looks set to get at least similar numbers if it is able to sustain the strong demand the G3 has attracted since launch. We don’t have official figures from LG itself but despite being (G2) a reviewer favourite, Samsung’s Galaxy S4 outsold the device and even though LG has brought its A-game to the table this time round, Samsung’s Galaxy S5 is still expected by analysts to have the upper hand thanks in part to an early launch date and Samsung’s unmatched marketing genius. Early estimates from independent sources had indicated that Samsung had likely shipped 10 million Galaxy S5 units (the company never provides actual sales figures) which is a lot. A final report on the matter from the company itself indicated that indeed 11 million Galaxy S5 units had been shipped globally in just a month beating the Galaxy S4’s shipment figures by at least a million over the same duration. For now though, the G3 is having a field day in Korea. Will it do the same globally?