We recently reported that Samsung had decided to forego its corporate branding in Japan and was now selling its latest handsets under the “Galaxy” branding in Japan. Units being sold in the country don't have the Samsung logo on them or even on the box but it appears that this rebranding effort hasn't done much to improve Samsung's fortunes in Japan. Japanese market research firm BCN's latest report shows that sales of the Galaxy S6 are far from spectacular in the country.
BCN's report shows that on May 11 the Galaxy S6 edge ranked 26th in the Japanese smartphone weekly sales rankings from April 27 to May 3. At first sales of this handset appeared to be smooth as it ranked at 10th the first week of its launch. In just one week its ranking fell by 16 places and it was almost the same story with the Galaxy S6, it fell down from 17th place during its first week to 30th place in the following week. It's interesting to note that the new handsets appear to be struggling only in the Japanese smartphone market because elsewhere they're two of the hottest devices on the market right now.
Some “experts” cited in the report try to explain the reason behind this lackluster performance: MacArthur Syndrome, so it may all come down to perception, with the West perceived by consumers to be superior to the East. This could explain Apple's stellar performance in the Japanese smartphone market which has made the iPhone the number one smartphone in the country. In fact six out of the top ten devices of the Japanese smartphone market are different iPhone models. Anti-Korean sentiment is seen as another reason why Samsung might be struggling as disputes over history have recently tensed up relations between Japan and South Korea.
