Samsung’s 2 Million Galaxy Tabs Shipped May Not Have Wound Up in Hands of Consumers

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Samsung’s Galaxy Tab isn’t selling quite as well as the
company and media have initially portrayed, a company official acknowledged.

Moreover, there is some evidence that the 7-inch tablets
based on Google’s Android operating system are making a round trip from
retailers to consumers and back.

Lee Young-hee said that the 2 million Tabs the company
claimed to have shipped since last September weren’t actual sales to consumers
but shipments to retailers and wireless companies such as Verizon Wireless,
AT&T and others who offer the device.

The figure reflected "sell-in" numbers,
Young-hee said during Samsung’s quarterly earnings call Jan. 28. She declined
to quote the "sell-out" numbers, or sales to consumers, but described
them as "quite smooth."

The Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog captured Young-hee’s comments in a transcript:

As you heard, our sell-in was quite aggressive and
this first quarterly result was quite, you know, fourth-quarter unit [figure]
was around two million. Then, in terms of sell-out, we also believe it was
quite smooth. We believe, as the introduction of new device, it was required to
have consumers invest in the device. So therefore, even though sell-out wasn’t
as fast as we expected, we still believe sell-out was quite OK."

For more, read the eWeek article: Samsung Galaxy Tab Shipped 2M Units but Not to Consumers .

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