Samsung Electronics saw its market share for mobile phones fall below 50 percent on its home turf in December, according to data released Monday.

The world’s second-largest manufacturer of mobile handsets said its South Korean market share stood at 48.7 percent, selling 940,000 units during the month of December.

It was the first time in eight months for Samsung to see its handset market share in South Korea drop below 50 percent.

Many market watchers attributed the drop to the launch of Apple’s popular iPhone in the country. Apple began local sales of its flagship product on Nov. 28, and more than 65,000 units of iPhone were reported to have been sold over the period of less than a week.

LG Electronic said it held a 20.9 percent market share in December, selling 403,000 units in the same period.

For all of 2009, Samsung sold 12 million units of its mobile phones, equivalent to 51.2 percent of all the mobile phones estimated to have been sold in South Korea in 2009.

LG said its sales reached a record high, reaching a 28.6 percent market share with 6.7 million units.

YonhapNewsAgency

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