Declining Galaxy S22 Sales Has Forced Samsung’s Carrier Partner to Sharply Raise Subsidies to Sell More Units
Though Samsung addressed this performance throttling issue, which was referred to as the Games Optimization Service (GOS), the sales of the Galaxy S22 lineup have not improved in South Korea, according to a report from The Korea Times. It is clear that customers do not appreciate that their high-end smartphone’s performance was being artificially reduced. Another reason why these sales could be declining was that it was not made clear to these users what the original intent of GOS was. Samsung did release an update, allowing users to disable GOS, but it has not helped it. Historically, Samsung’s flagship smartphone lineup has done well on its home market, but the report claims that the company’s carrier partners have taken drastic measures in increasing subsidies to sell more units. KT and LG Uplus have reportedly increased subsidies for the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus by up to 500,000 won, or $410. The carriers previously raised these subsidies by the same amount for the Galaxy S22 Ultra. As of right now, the subsidies on offer are more than triple from the 150,000 won, or $124 amount that was offered previously. To remind you, GOS does not just throttle gaming programs but apps like TikTok, Netflix, and Instagram. What GOS did not throttle was benchmarking apps like Geekbench, giving the impression that all Galaxy S22 models were performing as they should, which was not the case. An argument could be made that Samsung deliberately introduced GOS to its smartphones to optimize battery life, but if that was the case, there are several ways to do this, many of which would be made public knowledge to the owner. It may be possible that customers in South Korea will wait for initial reviews to come forth and see if the Galaxy S23 family throttles before deciding on a purchase. One thing is for sure, Samsung did not do itself any favors on artificially gimping performance. News Source: The Korea Times
