On March first Patently Apple posted a report titled "Out of the Gate, Korean Sources Claim that Pre-Orders for the Galaxy S9 are below Expectations." Eighteen days later and it's being reported in Korea that local consumers weren't enthusiastic about the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus as they went on sale over the weekend.

Over the weekend the Galaxy S9 went on sale in Korea and one local retailer explained that "It seems many consumers are thinking that the latest models are not that different from the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy A8, which were released a year ago and in January this year, respectively. Our recent best seller is the Galaxy A8, which is inexpensive yet as high-performance as Galaxy S phones.

Another retailer representative stated that "The Galaxy A8, which comes with dual front cameras, is very popular with teenagers and those in their 20s taking a lot of selfies. An increasing number of consumers are opting for inexpensive older phones these days amid the lack of significant performance improvement."

That position was highlighted in a recent report by Counterpoint Research titled "The Surprising Growth of Used Smartphones." The report noted that the global market for refurbished smartphones grew 13% y/y in 2017, reaching close to 140 million units.

The report further noted that "Apple and Samsung's dominance is more obvious in the refurb market than in the new smartphone market. The two brands combined hold close to three-fourths of the refurbished smartphone market, with Apple leading by a significant margin. In terms of revenue, the dominance grows further, as the two smartphone giants control more than 80% of the revenue in the refurbished smartphone market."

Samsung's Galaxy S9 and S9-Plus copied Apple's Animoji and Face ID and without Samsung originality consumers find these new smartphones a yawner. While Samsung fans in general are bound to consider the latest S9 smartphones as an upgrade, the results thus fare are nothing shy of lukewarm.

Contrary to the fake news and naysayers saying that the iPhone X wouldn't sell well, it was the number one smartphone over the holiday quarter. And when the iPhone X went on sale, the lineups were massive as shown in the photos below. Where were the lineups for the Galaxy S9? Nowhere to be found.

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