Samsung says 5m Galaxy S IIs sold just to Korea

Samsung on Thursday said it had reached a local milestone at over five million Galaxy S II phones shipped to South Korea. The figure came nine months after its release and helped give Samsung 53 percent share of the smartphone market in its home country. With a total population of nearly 49 million as of a 2010 estimate, the tally would theoretically put the dual-core Android phone in the hands of a tenth of the entire South Korean population.

Such high volumes were at least partly expected for Samsung. The Korean market often takes a domestic-first approach where Samsung, LG, and Pantech have predominant share. As a chaebol, or one of the near-institutional and family-owned corporations in Korea, Samsung also pervades much of Korean life and carries influence that some have at times called excessive. Before it had the Galaxy smartphone line and could compete more on quality, it chose to retaliate against KT for daring to carry the iPhone and quickly drying up sales of Samsung's Windows Mobile-based Omnia II.

The Galaxy S II has been popular enough to get multiple offshoots, such as the HD and HD LTE as well as the Epic 4G Touch and other upsized North American variants. [via Sammy Hub]

By Electronista Staff