More than eight out of ten smartphone users in South Korea are using Samsung Electronics’ (005930.KS) Galaxy smartphones, according to new survey data. Beyond just usage rates, future purchase intent and existing customer loyalty both climbed, reaffirming Samsung’s overwhelming dominance in the domestic market.<\/p>\n
According to Gallup Korea’s “Smartphone Survey 2026” released on July 13, 81% of South Korean smartphone users aged 13 and above said they use a Samsung Galaxy as their primary device. That marks a 9-percentage-point increase from 72% last year. In contrast, Apple (AAPL) iPhone usage fell from 24% last year to 19% this year. As a result, the usage gap between Samsung and Apple widened significantly from 48 percentage points last year to 62 percentage points this year.<\/p>\n
Gallup Korea cautioned, however, that this year’s survey included respondents aged 13 to 18 for the first time and switched to in-person interviews, meaning direct comparisons with previous results require careful interpretation.<\/p>\n
By age group, the iPhone led only among respondents in their 20s, with a 53% usage rate versus 47% for Galaxy. Among those in their 30s, Galaxy usage stood at 62%, rising to 84% for those in their 40s and 97% for those in their 50s, with the preference for Galaxy becoming more pronounced in older demographics. Galaxy usage reached 100% among those aged 60 and above. By gender, 84% of men and 78% of women reported using a Galaxy device.<\/p>\n
Galaxy’s strength was equally evident in future purchase intent. Among respondents planning to buy a new smartphone, 78% said they would choose a Samsung Galaxy, up 7 percentage points from 71% last year. Intent to purchase an Apple iPhone remained flat at 21%, unchanged from the previous year. Notably, Galaxy purchase intent exceeded 60% even among those in their 30s, indicating that Galaxy preference is spreading to trend-sensitive age groups.<\/p>\n
Customer loyalty also hit an all-time high. Among current Galaxy users, 96% said they would buy another Samsung Galaxy as their next smartphone, up 4 percentage points from 92% last year. With the smartphone market having reached maturity, the “lock-in effect” preventing existing Galaxy users from switching appears to have strengthened further.<\/p>\n
In the artificial intelligence technology perception survey, Samsung Electronics was rated as the leading company by South Korean consumers. When asked in an open-ended format which company is “most advanced in AI technology,” 37% named Samsung Electronics and its affiliates, placing it first. Google and Gemini followed at 15%, Naver (035420.KS) at 6.6%, and OpenAI and ChatGPT at 6.3%. SK Hynix (000660.KS) and its affiliates, along with Nvidia (NVDA), each garnered 4.9%, LG Electronics (066570.KS) and its affiliates received 4.8%, and Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) and its affiliates came in at 4.6%. Apple trailed at just 3.1%.<\/p>\n
It is also noteworthy that 95% of respondents with AI usage experience said they access AI through their smartphones. AI usage via laptops and desktops stood at 33%, tablets at 20%, and smartwatches at 12%, demonstrating that mobile devices have become the primary touchpoint for AI services. Samsung’s proactive introduction of Galaxy AI features is interpreted as having positively influenced consumer perception of the company in the AI space.<\/p>\n
The survey was conducted via in-person interviews from May 23 to June 11, with a nationwide sample of 1,700 people aged 13 and above. The margin of error is \u00b12.4 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than eight out of ten smartphone users in South Korea are using Samsung Electronics’ (005930.KS) Galaxy smartphones,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1137,3628,6434,45147,2730,702,6255,357,2295,6226,127,276,275],"class_list":["post-84668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-samsung-electronics","tag-ai","tag-apple","tag-galaxy","tag-gallup-korea","tag-google","tag-hyundai-motor","tag-iphone","tag-lg-electronics","tag-nvidia","tag-openai","tag-samsung","tag-samsung-electronics","tag-sk-hynix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}