A customer visits a shop in the headquarters of Samsung Electronics Co. in Seoul on Feb. 17, 2023, to purchase the tech giant’s latest Galaxy S23 smartphone that was released globally the same day. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of smartphones in South Korea fell 6 percent last year from a year earlier amid an economic slowdown, industry data showed Monday.
Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s leading smartphone maker, saw its smartphone sales decline 2 percent on-year in its home country in 2022, while sales of Apple Inc.’s iPhone inched down 0.4 percent from a year ago, market analyst firm Counterpoint Research said without providing any further details on sales volumes.
Sales of others tumbled 71 percent on-year last year due to a base effect stemming from LG Electronics Inc.’s exit from the mobile business in 2021.
Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S22 Ultra was the bestselling smartphone model last year, followed by the Galaxy Z Flip 4, Galaxy S22 5G and iPhone 13.
The combined sales of 10 top-selling smartphone models accounted for 46 percent of the total sales last year, down 7 percentage points from a year ago.
“Lingering economic uncertainties will drag down demand for budget smartphones this year,” Shin Kyung-hwan, an analyst from Counterpoint Research, said.
“Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max will lead the local smartphone market in the first quarter.”
(Yonhap)
