Samsung's Galaxy is about to have a generational iPhone problem in South Korea

AppleInsider

Apple's smartphone market share in South Korea isn't as dominant as the company might want, but if Samsung's not careful, the upcoming generation's taste for the iPhone will be a problem.

iPhone 14 Pro Max

Samsung, which is based out of South Korea, has long been the dominant presence in that market. On the other side of that coin is Apple, which has slowly grown in the country since it was introduced in 2009 but never commanded a majority market share.

Things started looking somewhat promising around 2013, as Apple managed to eat up 14 percent of the market. But, ultimately, even as the iPhone's popularity has skyrocketed over the years, Samsung has continued its reign of dominance in South Korea.

However, a new poll shows there is hope for the future of Apple in the country. The recent survey of 1,001 people in South Korea by Gallup Korea, published by Korea Herald, shows the younger generation between 18-29 is using the iPhone more than Samsung-branded smartphones.

In that demographic, Apple holds a resounding 60% of the marketshare, compared to Samsung's 32%.

The market turns to Samsung starting in the 30 to 39 age bracket, with Samsung holding on to 56% of the market, as Apple takes in 41%. For folks between 40 and 49, Samsung continues to be the go-to option with 78% of the market, and Apple at 10 percent.

The numbers keep ticking up for both age brackets and Samsung's market share, with 80% of 50 to 59 year olds choosing Samsung, and only 6% opting for Apple. 85% market share goes to the 60 to 69 year olds, and only 4% in the demographic for Apple.

iPhone market share in South Korea, per Gallup Korea

Samsung's numbers only start slipping in the 70+ demographic. It's here that Samsung has just 71% of the market, while Apple is clinging on to 1%. Meanwhile, LG comes out of nowhere and secures 20% of the senior citizen market.

It has been a very slow process, but it appears Apple is starting to make some ground in South Korea. Only time will tell if that trend continues into the future.

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igorsky

Since Samsung basically is South Korea, there's zero chance that the government allows this to happen

22july2013

Here is the population distribution of South Korea:

0-17:   18%
18-29: 16.5%
30-39: 15%
40-49: 17%
50-59: 16%
60-69: 7.5%
70+:    8%

Two things to note: (1) the two brackets above age 60 represent only 50% of the population share of the other five brackets, which most likely applies to this survey's samples. (2) the survey did not include people under 18, and I'm sure many people under 18 have cell phones, probably in the same ratio as the 18-29 bracket. If you take into account these two facts, Apple's share would most likely be larger than this survey suggests.

BiCC

22july2013 said:

Here is the population distribution of South Korea:

0-17:   18%
18-29: 16.5%
30-39: 15%
40-49: 17%
50-59: 16%
60-69: 7.5%
70+:    8%

Two things to note: (1) the two brackets above age 60 represent only 50% of the population share of the other five brackets, which most likely applies to this survey's samples. (2) the survey did not include people under 18, and I'm sure many people under 18 have cell phones, probably in the same ratio as the 18-29 bracket. If you take into account these two facts, Apple's share would most likely be larger than this survey suggests.

Fully agree.  You got the nail. Android and iOS are in competition. iOS is superior because it is not Android.  Haven't been to South Korea in five years, sit in any park and who holds what phone - count to one hundred.  The park we were at was 70 percent iOS to 30 percent Android.  We didn't switch around parks, we got hammered.

blastdoor

22july2013 said:

Here is the population distribution of South Korea:

0-17:   18%
18-29: 16.5%
30-39: 15%
40-49: 17%
50-59: 16%
60-69: 7.5%
70+:    8%

Two things to note: (1) the two brackets above age 60 represent only 50% of the population share of the other five brackets, which most likely applies to this survey's samples. (2) the survey did not include people under 18, and I'm sure many people under 18 have cell phones, probably in the same ratio as the 18-29 bracket. If you take into account these two facts, Apple's share would most likely be larger than this survey suggests.

Do you have a link for those numbers? They look possibly out of date to me. South Korea’s population is rapidly aging. If you look here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_South_Korea#CIA_World_Factbook_demographic_statistics you’ll see what I mean.

melgross

LG? I thought LG left the smartphone market worldwide two years ago.

at any rate, it looks good for the future of Apple there. People tend to continue using what they use when younger. So Samsung would be a natural,choice for older people, and the iPhone seems to be taking over for younger people most everywhere, though not necessarily as a majority share. Apple still has a lot of room to grow worldwide. They’re almost nonexistent in some places such as central and South America and Africa. But they need a less expensive model for those places, and some require manufacture to take place there.

danox

If you look at some of the latest Korean TV shows you see iPhones, iMac’s, iPads, Apple Watch, MacBooks, MacBook Pros quite often, Apple’s gateway into South Korea, is the same way it is successful in Japan and China, thru the wide range of devices that work very well together and the Apple Vision Pro next year will be huge in the upper 10% of the market in all three of those countries, and Apples, penetration in the film, music, art, fashion industries doesn’t hurt, the family of Apple devices simply work too well together.

One more thing not mentioned often, there is a fierce rivalry between China, Japan, and South Korea tech wise. The Apple brand is sort of neutral ground between the three countries if you want to buy a high end tech device without having to buy the other two countries tech devices. 

22july2013

blastdoor said:

22july2013 said:

Here is the population distribution of South Korea:

0-17:   18%
18-29: 16.5%
30-39: 15%
40-49: 17%
50-59: 16%
60-69: 7.5%
70+:    8%

Two things to note: (1) the two brackets above age 60 represent only 50% of the population share of the other five brackets, which most likely applies to this survey's samples. (2) the survey did not include people under 18, and I'm sure many people under 18 have cell phones, probably in the same ratio as the 18-29 bracket. If you take into account these two facts, Apple's share would most likely be larger than this survey suggests.

Do you have a link for those numbers? They look possibly out of date to me. South Korea’s population is rapidly aging. If you look here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_South_Korea#CIA_World_Factbook_demographic_statistics you’ll see what I mean.

That page you cited says that 65+ is "14.1%" which isn't much more than what you get when you add the 70+ bracket (8%) with half the 60-69 bracket (3.75%) in my data. I consider the difference between my data and yours to be minor.

Although I couldn't find my original source (despite spending an hour looking through my Safari browser history) I did find another source https://www.census.gov/popclock/world/ks which has slightly different numbers, but not by much. You have to add up male and female to get the totals for each age group, and you have to interpolate for 0-17 since they block ages in groups of 5. You also have to move your mouse over the chart bars to see the numbers. I'll leave it to you to determine if these numbers are different from mine.

22july2013

BiCC said:

22july2013 said:

Here is the population distribution of South Korea:

0-17:   18%
18-29: 16.5%
30-39: 15%
40-49: 17%
50-59: 16%
60-69: 7.5%
70+:    8%

Two things to note: (1) the two brackets above age 60 represent only 50% of the population share of the other five brackets, which most likely applies to this survey's samples. (2) the survey did not include people under 18, and I'm sure many people under 18 have cell phones, probably in the same ratio as the 18-29 bracket. If you take into account these two facts, Apple's share would most likely be larger than this survey suggests.

Fully agree.  You got the nail. Android and iOS are in competition. iOS is superior because it is not Android.  Haven't been to South Korea in five years, sit in any park and who holds what phone - count to one hundred.  The park we were at was 70 percent iOS to 30 percent Android.  We didn't switch around parks, we got hammered.

Thanks. I didn't want to give an overall estimate of Apple's share because the survey didn't say how many people were sampled in each age group. It likely was a different sample size for each age group. Without that data, it's hard to extrapolate. I didn't see the data in the original report that this article was based on, either. Such a shame.

In any case, I suspect that older people travel to the park less often than young people, so your 70% observations are probably skewed more in Apple's favour for the population overall. Looking at the data in the article, and taking into account that the survey omitted people under 18, I'd take a guess that Apple's share is 40% to 45%. Remember, younger age groups tend to have higher populations, even in countries where there are lots of older people.