Why Samsung Needs the Galaxy S8 to Be a Hit

Samsung officially unveiled its new flagship smartphone at a launch event in New York on Wednesday. As far as the phone goes, there were little to no surprises as countless leaked photos of the device had surfaced on the internet over the past few weeks. The standout feature of the new Galaxy S8 and its larger brother the S8+ is the screen, which stretches all the way to the sides of the phone. A similar, virtually bezel-free display, “Infinity Display” as Samsung calls it, has been rumored to make an appearance in the next generation of iPhones as well. If Apple does indeed follow suit and present an edge-to-edge iPhone later this year, it could be counted as a big win for Samsung which has often been accused of taking design cues from Apple, not the other way around.

After the Galaxy Note debacle took out an entire generation of Samsung’s second flagship smartphone last fall, the company has a lot riding on the Galaxy S8. Not only is the new device under a lot of pressure to work flawlessly, Samsung also needs it to be a big seller. As our chart illustrates, the company’s lead in the smartphone market has crumbled lately, as Apple and a number of Chinese brands gained ground on both ends of the market. In the 2016 holiday quarter, Apple even overtook Samsung in terms of unit sales for the first time since 2011.