Samsung Galaxy S20 sales down in Korea due to coronavirus, report claims
First-day sales of Samsung's latest flagship may be affected by the coronavirus.
Sales for the Galaxy S20 line appear to be off to a slow start in South Korea.
Samsung's new Galaxy S20 line is on sale in the company's home country of South Korea, but the global spread of coronavirus may be having an impact on sales.
After going on sale in South Korea on Thursday, a report from the country's Yonhap News Agency claims that Samsung sold "an estimated 70,800 units of the latest smartphone series in the domestic market" on day one, "sharply lower than first-day figures" for last year's Galaxy S10 line that went on sale last March and according to the report sold 140,000 units in the first day.
The Note 10 line, which launched last August, sold 220,00 devices on its launch day.
"Sales were affected by sharp declines in discounts for new phones and the number of visitors to offline stores due to coronavirus infection fears," an unnamed official from a local telecom company told the outlet.
South Korea has announced over 2,300 cases of the virus, the highest number of cases outside of China, and at least 13 deaths. Popular K-pop group BTS announced this week that they will be canceling their April concerts in the country over concerns about the virus.
Samsung didn't immediately respond to a CNET request for comment.
The Galaxy S20 line goes on sale in the US on March 6.