Samsung Galaxy S8 to go on sale in Japan next month: Yonhap

SEOUL - Samsung Electronics will begin selling its Galaxy S8 smartphone in Japan next month, in a bid to win back market share lost to Apple following the recall of the fire-prone Samsung Galaxy Note 7, Yonhap News Agency reported Sunday.

The Galaxy S8 release comes after the electronics giant was forced to recall its Note 7 phones for catching fire due to overheating batteries. The recall-related costs hit the company’s profits and hammered its global reputation and credibility.

The Galaxy S8 is already being sold in South Korea, China and the United States.

Yonhap said Samsung held a 14.8 percent share of the Japanese smartphone market in 2012, but that plunged to just 3.8 percent by the first quarter this year when it sold about 300,000 in Japan. Apple’s current Japanese market share tops 50 percent, the report said.

Samsung is expected to have sold 20 million Galaxy S8 series smartphones by the end of June, and between 50 million to 60 million over a year, Yonhap reported, citing unnamed industry sources.

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