While Samsung’s performance in some key markets is a cause for concern, the company seems to be doing well in its home market of South Korea. According to the numbers published by Strategy Analytics, Samsung gained market share in the domestic market in the first quarter of 2018.
Samsung reportedly shipped 3.9 million smartphones in Q1 2018, grabbing a market share of 65.3 percent in South Korea. Apple came in second by shipping around 1 million units and garnering 16.7 percent market share. The Korean rival LG secured the third place with 700,000 shipments and 12.2 percent market share. Of the three companies, only Samsung had a major smartphone release in the first quarter.
Better than the performance in Q1 2017
The numbers compare favorably to Samsung’s performance in the first quarter last year when the company garnered 58.2 percent market share, while Apple and LG stood at 18.2 percent and 14.9 percent respectively. Samsung’s Q1 2018 performance in Korea is also an improvement over the fourth quarter numbers last year. In Q4, Samsung’s market share in Korea dropped to 46 percent, while Apple secured 28 3 percent owing to the launch of the iPhone X and iPhone 8.
Strategy Analytics attributes the improved domestic performance of Samsung to the early release of the Galaxy S9 which reportedly sold more than 1 million units in the first 60 days. While the Galaxy S9’s early release didn’t have much of impact on Samsung’s overall performance in other markets, it does seem to have helped the company in the domestic market.
Do note that numbers from market research firms may not always be accurate as they rely on unofficial and incomplete sources of data which is why they sometimes publish contradictory findings.
