[ THE INVESTOR ] Samsung Electronics is bucking the norm of secrecy within the highly competitive smartphone industry, revealing the sales figures of the latest Galaxy S8 almost on a regular basis.



On May 28, the Korean tech giant said it sold more than 1 million units of the phone on its home turf, 37 days after the phone’s official launch on April 21.



“The phone’s predecessors S6 and S7 hit the 1 million mark in 75 and 74 days since their launch, respectively. The S8 is selling almost two times faster than that,” said a Samsung official.











Since the preorders started on April 7, Samsung has publicly shared key sales data about the new phone possibly to boast its strong performance and lure more customers.



On April 9, the company said the preorders exceeded 550,000 units within two days of the launch. On April 18, it said the figure hit the 1 million mark.



Since the phone hit store shelves on April 21, the company has continued revealing the numbers.



On May 1 when the artificial intelligence assistant Bixby started being offered in the Korean language, the company said the number of users reached 160,000 people on the day alone.



Earlier this month, following news reports that the phone’ global sales hit the 5 million mark, the company stressed the shipment exceeded 10 million units.



“Samsung may be the only company that can use sales figures as a marketing strategy,” said an industry source, citing the company’s more than 60 percent market share in the nation’s smartphone market.



By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)