The domestic smartphone market in South Korea declined by 6% in 2022 compared to the previous year, due to inflationary pressures and increased economic uncertainty, as well as poor sales of flagship models.
Samsung’s key model in the second half, the Galaxy Z Flip 4, failed to find significant differentiation from its predecessor, and the demand for its mid-to-low-end lineup shrank, leading to a 2% decrease in Samsung’s sales in 2022. Financial analysts had predicted at the end of 2022 that Samsung’s sales of foldable smartphones may be just 10 million down from previous estimates of 15 million.
Despite supply chain disruptions caused by the lockdown of the Zhengzhou Foxconn factory, Apple’s sales of the new iPhone 14 series were close to the previous year’s level.
According to Counterpoint, the combined market share of the top 10 smartphone models in South Korea in 2022 dropped by 7 percentage points compared to the previous year, recording 46%. The best-selling smartphone was the Galaxy S22 Ultra. The initial sales momentum of the Galaxy S22 Ultra were impacted by Samsung’s Game Optimization Service (GOS) app which hampered the performance of many Galaxy smartphones and apps. GOS came pre-installed on Galaxy S22-series smartphones and was supposed to help improve game performance which it did by not letting other apps perform.
