Pre-orders for the soon to be released Galaxy Note 8 have gone through the roof, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd announced on Tuesday.
According to the company, pre-orders for its premium smart phone, set for release into the market on Friday, are the highest ever for the range.
The company says that it received 650 000 pre-orders for the handset over five days from around 40 different countries, for an initial response president of Samsung Electronics’ mobile communications unit, DJ Koh, called “very encouraging”.
These numbers beat the short-lived Note 7’s figures over five days by two-and-a-half times.
The Note 7 was short-lived as fires caused by batteries forced the company to pull the device from the market after only a few months, costing it billions of dollars.
However, the disaster did not tarnish the brand’s image by much, as a survey showed that 85 per cent of 5 000 Galaxy Note users expressed brand loyalty, Koh told a Samsung event.
Samsung is banking on the Note 8 to protect its market dominance as it competes with biggest rival Apple, who are set to unveil their latest iPhone device later on Tuesday.
Koh did drop a few crumbs relating to developments the company has in the pipeline, saying that a foldable handset was in the works, hopefully, to be shown next year. But that is dependent on whether technological hurdles can be overcome.
“We are digging thoroughly into several issues we must overcome, as we don’t want to just make a few, sell a few and be done. We want to hear that Samsung made a very good product,” Koh said.