I find nothing strange.
1st the battery explosion do affecting. Due to that issue, really a lot people change phone brand.
2nd really a lot people buy Huawei now and mostly buy Huawei all told me won't jump ship and will continue use Huawei, especially the Leica thing really help Huawei a lot and it do really output very nice photo.
3rd I notice more and more user using iPhone now. iPhone 7 / 7 Plus is the most people buy this time.
4th is too many Oppo and Vivo shop now, I always see a lot people at Oppo shop and most of the time I seen customer buying it.
5th not a lot people keep changing phone, already too many people already upgrade new phone before this phone launch.
6th this S8 / S8+ ain't cheap. Really not much people would buy RM 3K Android phone now because even middle range already very solid build with great performance for Android.
7th this time pre-order free gift is not that attractive. I find Samsung pre-order free gift downgrade every year.
In short, a lot people already change brand and Samsung no longer that lead anymore.
I told a lot people about S8 today and nobody in my working place is interesting to it, not even want to Google to check it out even though I said how nice it is, most people immediate told me not interesting with Samsung when I just mentioned brand "Samsung".
** I based on total 2k+ staff in my working place phone usage behavior & unknown people surrounding me.
*** I am not bashing this phone, I tell what I seen happening surrounding me. I very like this phone design and possible buying it after holding it.
kinda agree with you..my office most ppl get huawei and oppo as mid range price while iphone as top brand nowadays. i told my colleague abt s8, they told me don get first, better wait a while to monitor if any problem with the phone.. if you get the phone, better stay away from us..later kaboom..
although i know they are kidding, but the past case really affect the image of samsung.. hopefully this phone don come out with problem ..
i kinda like the design too..but wait till hold the phone first..