Thanks to the iPhone 6, Apple is whittling away the dominant position Samsung Electronics has in South Korea, its own backyard.
The Cupertino, California based Apple captured 33% of the market during November in South Korea, which was an all time record for a foreign brand, says a monthly report from a market research firm based in Hong Kong called Counterpoint.
In contrast, the market share for Samsung dropped to 46% after remaining close to 60% for the past five months.
The sales were likely at Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 phablet’s expense, which was launched during the latter part of September.
The two new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are making a big difference in South Korea said one local analyst. The analyst went on to say that, if there was more of a supply of the iPhones at 64GB as well as 124GB then the market share of Apple would have climbed as high as 40%.
Analysts located in South Korea expect Samsung to lose more share of the global market during the last quarter of 2014, which would be the fourth straight quarter they have lost market share.
This is due to Apple extending his dominance in the high end segment and upstarts such as Xiaomi from China making inroads in a big way into the lower end market.
Prior to now, Samsung has dominated in South Korea largely because of being better known in the country, but Apple’s latest gains are quickly threatening Samsung’s hold.
The 33% market share for Apple marked the first time a foreign based smartphone maker has surpassed a market share of 20% in the country.
With Apple jumping into second place, the U.S. tech giant pushed LG Electronics, also based in South Korea, into third place with 14% of the market.
Apple announces its quarterly sales on January 27 with analysts estimating it will have iPhone sales of more than 60 million units.
