SK Telecom Co., South Korea`s leading mobile operator, said it has activated 550,000 Galaxy S2 smartphones since the product`s April 29 debut. No. 2 mobile operator KT Corp. sold 300,000 units, and LG Uplus Corp. sold 150,000 phones.
Brisk sales of the new Galaxy phone, which is lighter, thinner and faster than its predecessor, helped Samsung Electronics regain the domestic market share that it had lost to Apple Inc.`s iPhone.
Samsung claimed nearly 60 percent of South Korea`s mobile phone sales in May, its highest monthly market share this year, countering the view that SK Telecom`s iPhone offering would bode ill for the Korean tech giant. Its market share fell below the 50 percent level to 47 percent in April.
SK Telecom, which controls about half of South Korea`s wireless market, began to offer the iPhone in March, breaking the exclusive domestic distribution of the phone by KT.
Brisk sales of Samsung`s latest smartphone have also come amid the absence of a new model from its biggest rival, Apple, and growing competition from other vendors of Android-based smartphones, such as HTC Corp. and Motorola Mobility Holdings Ltd., in South Korea.
Apple, which has been upgrading its software for the iPhone and iPad, and added the white version of its iPhone 4 in April, has yet to announce the new iPhone hardware model for this year.
Samsung said on May 30 that it has delivered more than 1 million Galaxy S2 smartphones to the three mobile carriers in South Korea, without disclosing sales figures to consumers.
(T.A045/H-AK)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
