Samsung CEO apologises for Galaxy S22 app throttling controversy

Samsung’s chief executive officer has apologized for the recent controversy around Galaxy S22 smartphone performance being limited by a preinstalled app.

During the South Korean tech giant’s annual shareholders’ meeting on Wednesday, Samsung Device Experience division CEO JH Han said the company failed to appreciate customer concerns over the issue and bowed in apology.

Consumer complaints reached a boiling point earlier this month with allegations that the Game Optimisation Service (GOS) app on the Galaxy S22 series was throttling the performance of numerous apps on the phones.

In response, Samsung had claimed that GOS only limits the performance of gaming apps and was installed for safety, but issued a software update last week that gave customers an option to prioritise performance.

Despite the software update, there have been calls by consumers that they should have the choice to remove the app altogether.

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has launched an investigation on the issue to investigate whether Samsung violated fair labeling and advertisement laws by over-promising the capabilities of Galaxy S22 smartphones.

During the shareholders’ meeting, the Samsung CEO defended the GOS app, saying it was designed to optimise the performance of smartphones.

The app only limits the performance of CPU and GPU on the phones to the extent that they don’t affect the performance of gaming apps, Han said.

But the company rolled out its recent software to reflect the customers demands for improved performance, the CEO said, promising that such issues won’t happen again.

Han also denied allegations that the GOS issue was caused by the company’s excessive cost reduction efforts, saying that Samsung doesn’t give up on quality to cut costs. Some unverified claims by consumers alleged that the South Korean tech giant saved in cost by not using hardware that can dissipate the heat from the Galaxy S22 series, opting to rely only on the GOS app.

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