4 ms·

Samsung Galaxy S II – Over 3 million units sold in 55 days

49 points by Garbage 15y ago

kevingadd 15y ago
Unfortunately, because the hardware is new enough not to have any custom ROMs available, anyone who owns one of these phones is stuck on Android 2.3.3, and that rev of the OS happens to have a few kernel bugs that cause significant battery drain. Still no ETA on a 2.3.4 update for the phone, despite the fact that other phones have had it for weeks. This and other examples of bad customer support from Samsung kind of dampen the appeal of the hardware. At this point, I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a new phone. It's particularly embarrassing that they shipped these devices even though the power drain issues should have been detected during QA.
- flexd 15y ago
  It is still a ridiculously quick and awesome phone though! I went from a Nokia 5800 XM to a SGS2 and the battery life isn't that bad. I've had the phone last like 24h with decent usage (meaning it was one of the first days I had it). Do you really expect to get more with a smart phone these days? I don't know how long the iphone 4 lasts but my friend that has one seems to be charging his every day. Hardware-wise it's a great phone and in the future the updates will come :-) I personally have no problems recommending this phone to anyone because regardless of it's issues it's still a very good phone.
  - kevingadd 15y ago
    The battery issues are, oddly enough, specifically regarding idle use - the phone fails to disable wifi when going to sleep and sometimes interrupt handlers that run while the phone is asleep cause it to wake up and peg a core at 100% utilization, killing the battery. The phone's battery usage while not asleep is actually quite good! And if you disable WiFi, it's less likely you'll hit the bug. But it still happens to me a few times a day, so I have to charge it daily even if I'm not using it - and that's frustrating.
    - therockhead 15y ago
      I have a GS2 for the three weeks now and havent seen this issue.In fact, I think the battery life is a lot better then my last phone which was a IPhone 3GS. Is this a common bug?
    - breennoopia 15y ago
      Is this also true for Samsung Google Nexus S? I intend to buy Samsung Google Nexus S in near future.
      - flexd 15y ago
        Being Google's flagship phone it probably gets a lot more updates directly. :-) I was considering the Nexus S but ended on a SGS2 because the price here is pretty much the same and the SGS2 is much better.
    - flexd 15y ago
      I used wifi all day at work the past weeks without much problems, but I can understand your frustration if it suddenly eats up a lot of power. After 7 hours idling today my phone is at 81% battery now, but I have only been on the phone for like 20 minutes earlier today so "Android OS" and "Voice calls" have about 25 minutes of cpu usage each, while maps has 15% today for some reason. My phone runs stock samsung android since I just got it: Android 2.3.3 GINGERBREAD.XWKE2 Linux Kernel 2.6.35.7
  - MrVitaliy 15y ago
    Some of my buddies who have Android phones claim that poor battery life is due to the cheap background apps that come with the phone and run all the time in background. Even after those apps are killed, within few hours they respawn and keep hogging the holy electric juice. Can you post a list of your default, background processes and idea on their CPU usage?
    - flexd 15y ago
      Currently I have the following services/processes running in the background: 3G watchdog Bump Spotify DRM Content Software update Android system Task manager Voice commands Digital Clock Social Hub Social Hub (again, different icon) Accuweather widget Google services Maps IMEITracker Wi-fi sharing Email Vortex Galaxy (live wallpaper) Samsung keypad Currently using 217MB ram total. I have never used/not configured the following things: Social Hub Voice commands Email (besides Gmail but that is not what is running) I haven't used maps today but I have not rebooted the phone since I did a few days ago so it might be stuck from then. As for the CPU usage I am not sure since it does not show cpu usage for services as far as I can tell. As for applications I can think of that would require background services or cpu usage in any other way: Bump Notifo (for awesome HN notifications among other things) Weather widget Gmail Dropbox Facebook Twitter Skype It would probably be nice to find a way to either turn off Social hub (which comes with the phone) or replace the other applications with that. I didn't feel like setting it up so I just went with the normal Facebook/Twitter applications/widgets. Actually considering removing them both because really they don't really add anything to my life besides making it easier for me to write random thoughts and things on my wall/timeline and there are too many people broadcasting their every move already. I should probably mention I do use power savings mode all the time but that simply turns off wifi/gps/stuff whenever it's not needed which I think should be default anyway. Eek! This reply turned out huge :|
ugh 15y ago
Not that it matters (it is, however, interesting), but the iPhone sold about eleven million times in 55 days during the last quarter. (They sold 18.65 million units in Q2 2011. That number also includes quite a lot of iPhone 3GS so it’s not really a fair comparison. Let’s say six million iPhone 4?) Just to repeat myself: This is not in any way surprising or special. Android is on many different devices and there is no one definite Android device. Should there ever be one device that over a longer time outsells the iPhone Apple will be in deep, deep trouble if they want to retain their market share.
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  In a way, it's not that surprising because we kind of expected it since it's such a great phone. But what is surprising though is that even with so many other Android alternatives out there, this Android phone alone manages to get pretty close to the numbers of a newly launched iPhone. Many people don't realize that one of the reasons why the iPhone sells so much more than any single Android phone in general, is exactly because there is only one such phone every year. Imagine if Apple sold 10-20 different iPhone models every year. You could see why even though the total market share would probably rise a bit, any single iPhone model would sell a lot less than the current one-per-year models. So yes the iPhone is great and Apple is a great company, too, but that's not the only reason the iPhone usually outsells any single Android device out there by a large margin. It's also because people can choose from a tens of different Android devices, too.
  - ugh 15y ago
    It doesn't really get close to the launch numbers of the iPhone. (Pre-iPhone 4 launch numbers, sure, but the market as a whole is growing so quickly that those comparisons don't make sense at all.)
  - davidedicillo 15y ago
    Also there are a lot of much cheaper, if not free, Android phones. I'm sure if people could get an iPhone for free they would "sell" many more.
nextparadigms 15y ago
This happened without even being launched in USA. I imagine it could've easily doubled up if it did.
rlpb 15y ago
The phone may be flagship now, but won't be in 12 months when I will still want it to work well given how expensive it is. With a history of poor support and lack of updates across all vendors, I'm not buying any Android device until Cyanogen runs on it. Samsung has apparently sent a Cyanogen developer a phone, but they are struggling: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=15000396&postcount=248 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=15000396&...
- veeti 15y ago
  Samsung is part of the newly formed Android Alliance [1] that promises updates for 18 months. [1] http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/05/10/io-2011-android-alliance-promises-timely-android-os-updates-for-18-months-after-device-launch/ http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/05/10/io-2011-android-alli...
  - rlpb 15y ago
    What does that mean though? The Samsung Galaxy Tab has no sign of Android 3.1 on it; the latest is 2.3, and last I checked it was only available in Italy; people in the UK are on 2.2 and have been waiting months. According to another comment on this post, the Galaxy S II is already an update behind. What qualifies as a timely update?
- mestudent 15y ago
  That is my problem right now, I won't buy an android until cyanogen runs on it and it is easily rooted, so when my droid first gen finally broke I actually ended up buying an iphone as all the comparative weren't listed as meeting my requirements. I hope when my iphone breaks the ecosystem is better (so far I only really miss native gmail and having an actual filesystem to use with the apps.)
  - pkulak 15y ago
    Yeah, it kinda sucks that there's no Cyanogen phone on Verizon right now. I'm not moving to Verizon until that happens. I'm hoping it will with the SGS II.
skystorm 15y ago
It could have been many more, if only the sold the damn thing in the US... ;)
Derbasti 15y ago
Is that sales to customers or sales to retailers?
kungfooey 15y ago
As a Samsung Galaxy S (Vibrant) buyer there I no way I would touch this phone. Samsung took nearly a year to go from 2.1 to 2.2, and seeing 2.3.4 on the original S line is highly unlikely. I think Samsung makes some great hardware (I'm typing this on a Galaxy Tab 10.1), but until they start showing more support for existing hardware, I do not plan to purchase anything else from them.
- timdorr 15y ago
  Not a concern for me, since I will be running 3rd party ROMs on my phone to both upgrade to the latest version of Android faster and remove any excess cruft that the manufacturers and cell networks like to cram in there.

49 points by Garbage 15y ago

Unfortunately, because the hardware is new enough not to have any custom ROMs available, anyone who owns one of these phones is stuck on Android 2.3.3, and that rev of the OS happens to have a few kernel bugs that cause significant battery drain. Still no ETA on a 2.3.4 update for the phone, despite the fact that other phones have had it for weeks. This and other examples of bad customer support from Samsung kind of dampen the appeal of the hardware. At this point, I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a new phone. It's particularly embarrassing that they shipped these devices even though the power drain issues should have been detected during QA.

flexd 15y ago
It is still a ridiculously quick and awesome phone though! I went from a Nokia 5800 XM to a SGS2 and the battery life isn't that bad. I've had the phone last like 24h with decent usage (meaning it was one of the first days I had it). Do you really expect to get more with a smart phone these days? I don't know how long the iphone 4 lasts but my friend that has one seems to be charging his every day. Hardware-wise it's a great phone and in the future the updates will come :-) I personally have no problems recommending this phone to anyone because regardless of it's issues it's still a very good phone.
- kevingadd 15y ago
  The battery issues are, oddly enough, specifically regarding idle use - the phone fails to disable wifi when going to sleep and sometimes interrupt handlers that run while the phone is asleep cause it to wake up and peg a core at 100% utilization, killing the battery. The phone's battery usage while not asleep is actually quite good! And if you disable WiFi, it's less likely you'll hit the bug. But it still happens to me a few times a day, so I have to charge it daily even if I'm not using it - and that's frustrating.
  - therockhead 15y ago
    I have a GS2 for the three weeks now and havent seen this issue.In fact, I think the battery life is a lot better then my last phone which was a IPhone 3GS. Is this a common bug?
  - breennoopia 15y ago
    Is this also true for Samsung Google Nexus S? I intend to buy Samsung Google Nexus S in near future.
    - flexd 15y ago
      Being Google's flagship phone it probably gets a lot more updates directly. :-) I was considering the Nexus S but ended on a SGS2 because the price here is pretty much the same and the SGS2 is much better.
  - flexd 15y ago
    I used wifi all day at work the past weeks without much problems, but I can understand your frustration if it suddenly eats up a lot of power. After 7 hours idling today my phone is at 81% battery now, but I have only been on the phone for like 20 minutes earlier today so "Android OS" and "Voice calls" have about 25 minutes of cpu usage each, while maps has 15% today for some reason. My phone runs stock samsung android since I just got it: Android 2.3.3 GINGERBREAD.XWKE2 Linux Kernel 2.6.35.7
- MrVitaliy 15y ago
  Some of my buddies who have Android phones claim that poor battery life is due to the cheap background apps that come with the phone and run all the time in background. Even after those apps are killed, within few hours they respawn and keep hogging the holy electric juice. Can you post a list of your default, background processes and idea on their CPU usage?
  - flexd 15y ago
    Currently I have the following services/processes running in the background: 3G watchdog Bump Spotify DRM Content Software update Android system Task manager Voice commands Digital Clock Social Hub Social Hub (again, different icon) Accuweather widget Google services Maps IMEITracker Wi-fi sharing Email Vortex Galaxy (live wallpaper) Samsung keypad Currently using 217MB ram total. I have never used/not configured the following things: Social Hub Voice commands Email (besides Gmail but that is not what is running) I haven't used maps today but I have not rebooted the phone since I did a few days ago so it might be stuck from then. As for the CPU usage I am not sure since it does not show cpu usage for services as far as I can tell. As for applications I can think of that would require background services or cpu usage in any other way: Bump Notifo (for awesome HN notifications among other things) Weather widget Gmail Dropbox Facebook Twitter Skype It would probably be nice to find a way to either turn off Social hub (which comes with the phone) or replace the other applications with that. I didn't feel like setting it up so I just went with the normal Facebook/Twitter applications/widgets. Actually considering removing them both because really they don't really add anything to my life besides making it easier for me to write random thoughts and things on my wall/timeline and there are too many people broadcasting their every move already. I should probably mention I do use power savings mode all the time but that simply turns off wifi/gps/stuff whenever it's not needed which I think should be default anyway. Eek! This reply turned out huge :|

ugh 15y ago

Not that it matters (it is, however, interesting), but the iPhone sold about eleven million times in 55 days during the last quarter. (They sold 18.65 million units in Q2 2011. That number also includes quite a lot of iPhone 3GS so it’s not really a fair comparison. Let’s say six million iPhone 4?) Just to repeat myself: This is not in any way surprising or special. Android is on many different devices and there is no one definite Android device. Should there ever be one device that over a longer time outsells the iPhone Apple will be in deep, deep trouble if they want to retain their market share.

nextparadigms 15y ago
In a way, it's not that surprising because we kind of expected it since it's such a great phone. But what is surprising though is that even with so many other Android alternatives out there, this Android phone alone manages to get pretty close to the numbers of a newly launched iPhone. Many people don't realize that one of the reasons why the iPhone sells so much more than any single Android phone in general, is exactly because there is only one such phone every year. Imagine if Apple sold 10-20 different iPhone models every year. You could see why even though the total market share would probably rise a bit, any single iPhone model would sell a lot less than the current one-per-year models. So yes the iPhone is great and Apple is a great company, too, but that's not the only reason the iPhone usually outsells any single Android device out there by a large margin. It's also because people can choose from a tens of different Android devices, too.
- ugh 15y ago
  It doesn't really get close to the launch numbers of the iPhone. (Pre-iPhone 4 launch numbers, sure, but the market as a whole is growing so quickly that those comparisons don't make sense at all.)
- davidedicillo 15y ago
  Also there are a lot of much cheaper, if not free, Android phones. I'm sure if people could get an iPhone for free they would "sell" many more.

nextparadigms 15y ago

This happened without even being launched in USA. I imagine it could've easily doubled up if it did.

rlpb 15y ago

The phone may be flagship now, but won't be in 12 months when I will still want it to work well given how expensive it is. With a history of poor support and lack of updates across all vendors, I'm not buying any Android device until Cyanogen runs on it. Samsung has apparently sent a Cyanogen developer a phone, but they are struggling: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=15000396&postcount=248 http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=15000396&...

veeti 15y ago
Samsung is part of the newly formed Android Alliance [1] that promises updates for 18 months. [1] http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/05/10/io-2011-android-alliance-promises-timely-android-os-updates-for-18-months-after-device-launch/ http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/05/10/io-2011-android-alli...
- rlpb 15y ago
  What does that mean though? The Samsung Galaxy Tab has no sign of Android 3.1 on it; the latest is 2.3, and last I checked it was only available in Italy; people in the UK are on 2.2 and have been waiting months. According to another comment on this post, the Galaxy S II is already an update behind. What qualifies as a timely update?
mestudent 15y ago
That is my problem right now, I won't buy an android until cyanogen runs on it and it is easily rooted, so when my droid first gen finally broke I actually ended up buying an iphone as all the comparative weren't listed as meeting my requirements. I hope when my iphone breaks the ecosystem is better (so far I only really miss native gmail and having an actual filesystem to use with the apps.)
- pkulak 15y ago
  Yeah, it kinda sucks that there's no Cyanogen phone on Verizon right now. I'm not moving to Verizon until that happens. I'm hoping it will with the SGS II.

skystorm 15y ago

It could have been many more, if only the sold the damn thing in the US... ;)

Derbasti 15y ago

Is that sales to customers or sales to retailers?

kungfooey 15y ago

As a Samsung Galaxy S (Vibrant) buyer there I no way I would touch this phone. Samsung took nearly a year to go from 2.1 to 2.2, and seeing 2.3.4 on the original S line is highly unlikely. I think Samsung makes some great hardware (I'm typing this on a Galaxy Tab 10.1), but until they start showing more support for existing hardware, I do not plan to purchase anything else from them.

timdorr 15y ago
Not a concern for me, since I will be running 3rd party ROMs on my phone to both upgrade to the latest version of Android faster and remove any excess cruft that the manufacturers and cell networks like to cram in there.