Samsung is known for having a solid and loyal customer base in its home country of South Korea. As the country’s largest conglomerate and one of the world’s most innovative companies, the citizens of the country rightly see it as a matter of pride to support this domestic giant.
However, it seems that this situation still does not give Samsung a chance to be unfair to its customers. A rather interesting video from South Korea shows that the whole GOS (Games Optimization Service) controversy that surfaced earlier this year has caused many people to switch from a Galaxy device to iPhones.
First of all, it is useful to remind this discussion. In March this year, it was revealed that Samsung has restricted more than 10,000 apps and games on its devices through software called Games Optimization Service (GOS). When GOS detected that any of the apps or games on the list were running, it seemed to throttle GPU and CPU performance.
The list does not include benchmark apps, meaning Samsung phones will post high performance scores that don’t represent real-world performance. This led Geekbench to ban Samsung phones using GOS.
Samsung said the main purpose of GOS is to prevent the device from overheating when performance-intensive apps and games are used for extended periods of time. It later released a fix to the Game Booster app that adds a button that allows GOS to prioritize maximum performance for all apps and games.
Koreans are angry with Samsung
A Korean YouTuber took to the streets in Seoul to ask citizens about the phone they are using and whether they would prefer a Galaxy phone over an iPhone. The video also pointed out that the rate of people who have recently switched from Galaxy device to iPhone in their 40s has increased by double digits.
The rising iPhone trend in the rest of the world seems to be active in South Korea as well. One person says they’re impressed by memes that say you’re less cool if you use a Samsung phone compared to an iPhone, while another says they prefer the iPhone’s camera features more.
In fact, in the video, someone who was going to the Apple store at the time cites the GOS controversy as the reason they switched from a Galaxy device to an iPhone. It is understandable that this issue has shaken their trust in Samsung, as young South Koreans can be broadly generalized as avid mobile gamers.
It doesn’t seem to matter if Samsung finally offers a fix that should have been there from the start.
While it is difficult to say for certain how many customers Samsung lost as a result of this discussion, its dominance in South Korea is not over. Samsung’s ecosystem remains robust in its home country. Its relationships and partnerships with carriers and retailers ensure that the iPhone continues to thrive even in the face of growing popularity.
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