Last updated: October 8, 2022 at 17:43 UTC+02:00
Samsung has a strong and loyal customer base in its home country of South Korea. Being the country’s largest conglomerate and one of the world’s most innovative companies, citizens rightly see it as a matter of pride to support this local behemoth.
However, that still doesn’t allow Samsung to pull a fast one over its customers. A rather interesting video from South Korea shows that the whole GOS controversy that emerged earlier this year has forced many people to switch from Galaxy devices to iPhones.
The GOS episode forced customers to ditch their Galaxy phones for the iPhone
First, an update on all the controversy. In March of this year, it turned out that Samsung Limits more than 10,000 apps and games on their devices through a program called Games Optimization Service. What GOS does is throttle GPU and CPU performance when it detects any of the apps or games on the launch list.
The list conveniently omitted benchmark apps, which meant Samsung phones posted high performance scores that weren’t representative of real-world performance. This leads to Geekbanch banned Samsung Phones with GOS.
Samsung claimed that the main purpose of GOS to prevent the device from overheating when programs and games that require intensive performance are used for a long time. It was later released to correct this Added a button in Game Booster This allowed GOS to prioritize maximum performance for all applications and games.
A Korean YouTuber took to the streets of Seoul and asked citizens whether they prefer a Galaxy phone to their iPhone or iPad. The video also notes that the rate of people in their 40s switching from a Galaxy device to an iPhone has recently increased by double digits.
The trend that has elevated the status of the iPhone as a device in the rest of the world has also reached South Korea. One person responds that they were moved by memes that say you’re less hypnotic if you use a Samsung phone compared to an iPhone. Another preferred the iPhone’s camera capabilities.
In fact, one person who went to an Apple store pointed to the GOS controversy as the reason they switched from a Galaxy device to an iPhone. As young South Koreans are mostly fans of mobile gamers, it’s understandable that the whole episode didn’t sit well with them and undermined their trust in Samsung.
It doesn’t matter if Samsung offers a fix that should have been there from the start. It was only when what GOS was doing came to light and there was serious criticism that the company decided to finally allow customers to use the full power of their devices.
While it’s hard to say exactly how many customers Samsung has lost as a result of the dispute, it doesn’t mean the end of its dominance in South Korea. Samsung’s ecosystem is strong in its home country. Its relationships and partnerships with carriers and retailers ensure it continues to thrive even as the iPhone grows in popularity.
