The Samsung Galaxy S5, a smartphone for the one percent?

In its first week on sale the latest Samsung flagship smartphone accounts for almost one percent of all Android phones in use globally.

The handset, which officially went on sale on April 11, accounts for 0.7 percent of all active smartphones running Google's open source operating system according to analytics firm Localytics. So, taking into consideration the fact that there are currently 1 billion Android phones in daily use globally, the company has managed to sell 7 million handsets in seven days.

To put that into some sort of perspective, Motorola only managed to ship 6.5 million handsets of any description -- flagship, mid-tier and entry-level -- over the past three months. And then there's the fact that the Galaxy S5 is yet to launch globally and that in its home country, carriers are unable to take on new customers during the month of April.

In fact to find a worthy comparison one has to look beyond Android entirely and towards Apple. It sold 10 million iPhone 5S and 5C handsets in just two days and in Localytics's report, published on Tuesday, it compares adoption figures for the iPhone 5S with the Galaxy S5 during the first seven days of availability and finds that over the same time period the iPhone 5S had secured a 1.1% share of the global iOS smartphone market.

Localytics's data also breaks down where the phone is having the biggest impact, and in the first week, at least, it's the US, which accounts for 64 percent of sales, followed by Europe (23%).

However, it will be interesting to see how these early adopters feel when a new and improved ‘prime' version of the Galaxy S5 goes on sale later this year with a 2K resolution (QHD) display, better battery life, faster graphics and processing power, on top of the 4K video recording, 16-megapixel rear camera, fingerprint scanner and heart rate monitor already offered on the ‘standard' device.

According to SamMobile, Samsung can't be accused of ‘gadget spam' or of intentionally cheating early customers in this instance. The company had intended to launch both handsets side by side but ran into manufacturing difficulties regarding the prime model's enhanced screen and so its release date has been pushed back.