[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics said on May 15 it has sold more than 1 million units of the Galaxy S9 smartphone first released in March.

The Korean tech giant said sales of the Galaxy S9, which was released on March 16, hovered above 1 million as of this week.

The announcement marked the first time that Samsung revealed sales figures of the latest flagship device.

The Galaxy S9 trailed last year’s phone the S8 and the S2 that was unveiled in 2011.

Last year’s Galaxy S8 reached the milestone in only 37 days, and the numbers for the older S2 tallied at 40 days.

Samsung recently showcased the red edition of the Galaxy S9 smartphones in China in line with efforts to bolster sales of the device. The red edition is also expected to arrive in the local market soon.

The Galaxy S9 is capable of shooting better photos under low light conditions as its main camera employs a variable aperture that can automatically or manually switch between F1.5 and F2.4.

Other notable features include the improved artificial intelligence platform Bixby along with an emoji generator using augmented reality technology.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)