Samsung sells 270,000 Galaxy Note 8 units on first weekend in South Korea as pre-orders begin in India

Samsung released the latest Galaxy Note 8 on Friday in 42 countries, including the US, Canada, Singapore, South Korea and some major European markets. A new report from Samsung's home country now has said that the company managed to sell as many as 270,000 units of the Galaxy Note 8 on the first weekend following its release.

South Korea's top three carriers, including SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus, received 200,000 new subscribers for the Galaxy Note 8 on September 15, followed by 70,000 more subscribes on the following day. The sale of 270,000 Galaxy Note 8 units accounted for 32 percent of the entire 850,000 pre-orders that Samsung received in eight days from September 7, The Korea Herald reported.

The Galaxy Note 8 sales figure easily dwarfs those of the Galaxy Note 7 and Galaxy S8, which brought in around 160,000 and 260,000 new subscribers, respectively, on the first day of going on sale.

Earlier this month, the Galaxy Note 8 set new pre-order records in markets where Samsung had already introduced the device. The company announced on September 8 that more customers in the US had pre-ordered the Galaxy Note 8 than any other Note version the company has ever sold during the same time period.

Samsung also announced around the same time that it had received around 395,000 pre-orders for the Galaxy Note 8 in South Korea.

According to some market watchers, Samsung is likely to maintain its Galaxy Note 8 winning momentum in the coming weeks, especially until the upcoming release of Apple's iPhone X on November 3.

"Things are favourable for the Note 8 thanks to the late release of the iPhone X," Lee Soon-hak, an analyst from Hanwha Investment and Securities, told the publication, adding that Samsung is estimated to sell 12 million Galaxy Note 8 units.

In India, Amazon has started taking Galaxy Note 8 pre-orders from Tuesday. The handset costs Rs 67,900 in India.