Galaxy S22 Racing Toward 1 Million Units... 'S Pen' Proves to Be a Big Hit

Expected to surpass in 6 weeks after launch
Shortest record among 5G smartphones
Half of sales are S Pen built-in 'Ultra'
Impact of expanded official subsidies

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Samsung Electronics' flagship smartphone series launched this year, the ‘Galaxy S22’ series, is expected to surpass 1 million units sold domestically within about 6 weeks of its release. This marks the third fastest sales record among all S series models and sets a new shortest record among 5G smartphones introduced since 2019.

Sold 23,000 units per day

On the 6th, Samsung Electronics provisionally tallied the domestic sales performance of the S22 series and estimated that sales would exceed 1 million units by the 8th, which is 43 days after the official launch. Sales surpassed 900,000 units earlier this month and continued steadily through last weekend. This averages to about 23,000 units sold per day.

The time taken for the flagship S series to surpass 1 million units sold is a traditional measure of success. The 43-day record set by the S22 is two weeks faster than its predecessor, the ‘Galaxy S21’ (57 days). It also beats the 47-day record of Samsung’s first 5G smartphone, the ‘Galaxy S10’, released in 2019, by four days. Compared to the ‘Galaxy S20’, which was hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak and took approximately 87 days (estimated), the S22’s performance is about half the time.

Global sales of the S22 series have also increased by more than 20% compared to its predecessor. It is estimated to have achieved early success even in the United States, Apple’s home market. Counterpoint Research reported that the initial three-week sales of the S22 series in the U.S. increased by more than 60% compared to the S21.

S Pen built-in drives success

The market analysis suggests that the effect of the ‘S22 Ultra’, which has a built-in S Pen, was significant. In fact, the Ultra accounted for more than 50% of total domestic sales. The ‘S22 Plus (+)’ and the standard model each accounted for about 20%. Since the Note series was not released last year, it is observed that the pent-up demand shifted toward the Ultra. Strong pre-order sales through e-commerce platforms like Coupang and telecom carriers, along with the expanded official subsidies supported by manufacturers and carriers as part of marketing efforts, also drove sales. Recently, as carriers have successively increased official subsidies, support for 5G plans priced around 90,000 to 100,000 KRW has risen to 450,000 to 500,000 KRW. Given that the S22’s retail price is 999,900 KRW, this amounts to nearly a 50% discount.

This year, the smartphone market has been significantly depressed due to semiconductor supply chain issues caused by COVID-19 and sluggish consumer demand. Domestic smartphone demand in the first quarter is estimated at about 3.5 million units, down more than 10% compared to the same period last year (4 million units). Counterpoint Research estimated the domestic market shipment volume for 2022 at 16.8 million units. This is a slight increase from 2021 (16.4 million units) but is expected to remain below 17 million units for the third consecutive year since 2020.

GOS controversy remains a challenge

Samsung Electronics evaluated that the Galaxy S22 series performed well despite the difficult market conditions. However, restoring consumer trust damaged by the Game Optimization Service (GOS) issue remains a challenge. As of the 6th, over 12,000 posts containing the keyword ‘GOS’ can be found on ‘Samsung Members’, Samsung’s smartphone user community. GOS is a feature that limits device performance to prevent overheating-related performance degradation and explosion issues when running game apps. After consumer complaints increased, Samsung released a software update to lift the initial performance restrictions, but concerns about losing loyal customers have grown. Due to the GOS issue, the S22 series was even removed from the benchmark site Geekbench, which specializes in performance measurement.