Affordable smartphones increasingly dominate the landscape as specifications get ever more similar across the board.
The affordable LUNA smartphone by TG & Co., which hit showrooms here in September, has racked up sales of 120,000 units. The first batch of 70,000 sold out in just three weeks, and sales of 150,000 are forecast by the end of this year.
Samsung has also sold more than 700,000 units of its mass-market Galaxy Grand Max released in January.
Both products cost less than W500,000 (US$1=W1,165).
The market is no longer dominated by high-end devices costing between W700,000 and W1 million. Cheap smartphones were unpopular just a year ago, when customer formed long lines in front of stores before the release of the latest premium gadgets. Smartphones costing over W500,000 accounted for 80 percent of the market.
But if mid to low-priced smartphones took up just 21.5 percent of the market during July-September period last year, their share has steadily increased to 34 percent now.
"As functions became roughly similar among devices, we have seen some really good mid to low-priced smartphones hit the market," said Choi Sang-kyu at Lotte Himart, which sells more than 1,000 smartphones a month. "There has been an increase in customers seeking cheaper deals."
As demand for cheaper phones grows, manufacturers are rolling out new models with cutting-edge functions that used to be reserved for premium models.
The trend is expected to continue next year because Chinese makers like Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi are preparing to launch more products in Korea. Huawei is getting ready to roll out the mid-priced Nexus 6P in the Korean market soon, which was developed with Google.
