What you need to know
- The Samsung Galaxy S22 series has apparently seen a sales decline in South Korea after the performance throttling controversy.
- Samsung's partner carriers have reportedly raised subsidies for the phones to sell more units.
- The tech giant recently rolled out an update to fix the issue.
The recent performance throttling controversy involving the Samsung Galaxy S22 series appears to have taken its toll on the flagship phones. According to The Korea Times, sales of Samsung's latest flagship phones have declined in the company's home country.
There is currently no statistical data available to show how much the phone's value has dropped due to the Game Optimizing Service (GOS) issue. However, Samsung's mobile carrier partners in South Korea, including KT and LG Uplus, have significantly increased subsidies for these devices.
Both carriers have raised subsidies for the Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus by up to 500,000 won, or approximately $410. This is the same amount that KT and LG Uplus are already offering to customers who buy the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
"The amount of subsidies that will be provided is something that our company and mobile carriers decided together after a consultation," a Samsung representative told The Korea Times. "Currently, the device market is generally in a difficult situation, so the subsidies were raised starting on April 1."
This means that the subsidies on offer are now more than triple the 150,000 won (approximately $124) previously offered by these carriers.
While industry watchers see the subsidy increase as part of efforts to address the decline in sales of Samsung's answer to the best Android phones, an official from a local mobile carrier offered a different viewpoint.
"There is a view that the GOS issue adversely affects the sales of the S22, but there is no clear decline in terms of sales volume," the carrier official was quoted as saying. "There is demand for devices not only from those who play games, but also from those who do not play games."
"There has been controversy over the GOS, but there are two high-end smartphone brands ― Samsung's Galaxy S series and Apple's iPhone ― so we don't see a clear sales decline of the Galaxy devices," the official added.
The throttling scandal broke early last month when it was discovered that GOS, which comes preinstalled on Samsung smartphones ostensibly to "optimize" games, slowed the performance of over 10,000 apps and games.
Samsung was quick to acknowledge the problem and promise a fix in a future update. Indeed, the company released a patch a few days later.
However, it did not appear to help the Galaxy S22 phones' sales in their home market, and it remains to be seen how the controversy will pan out overseas.
