Report: Samsung to manufacture 17.2 million Galaxy S7/Edge in three months

Samsung is gearing up to produce over 17 million units of the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge in its first quarter of availability, according to a report from Korea’s ETNews.

Citing anonymous industry sources, ETNews says the total manufacturing run for February, March, and April will amount to 17.2 million units. While we can’t equate sales with production runs, Samsung reportedly sold 15.8 million Galaxy S6’s and 15.2 million Galaxy S4’s in their first three months of availability. The significantly larger production target may be an indication that Samsung is feeling confident in the success of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, which were received enthusiastically at MWC earlier this week.

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Out of the total production, Galaxy S7 will amount to 9.9 million units, while the larger S7 Edge will get 7.3 million units, for a 6:4 ratio. Last year, in contrast, Samsung projected a 4:1 ratio in favor of the Galaxy S6 – when the S6 Edge turned out to be a sales hit, the company scrambled to bring more production capacity online. It looks like this time around, Samsung is ready to meet the high demand for the curved S7, which may be one of the reasons it projects higher production runs.

Samsung did not comment on any production figures, but its mobile chief DJ Ko did hint at improved sales for the Galaxy S7:

“Although I cannot give you detailed numerical values, it seems that Galaxy S7 will have better results than Galaxy S6. All of our customers and partners are expecting a lot from Galaxy S7,” Ko said on the sidelines of the Galaxy S7 launch.

Samsung’s days of explosive growth may be over, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for growth left for the world’s most important Android OEM. Samsung has been losing some ground in the mid-range and entry-level markets, while Apple’s iPhones are still going strong, particularly in China. That said, Samsung has a very potent weapon in the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, which take everything we loved about the previous generation and add improvements like a microSD card, waterproofing and gaming optimization.

Do you think the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge will beat out the S6 to become Samsung’s bestselling phone ever?