Reignited GOS Issue... Between Smartphone Overheating and Performance [Cha Min-young's Post-it]

President No Tae-moon Appears as Witness at Political Affairs Committee Hearing
"Many Customer Complaints Resolved After Software Update"
Fair Trade Commission Investigation and Class Action Lawsuit Ongoing Regarding GOS
Apple Also Faces Ongoing Lawsuit Over 'Battery Gate'

On the 7th, at the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee hearing, No Tae-moon, head of Samsung Electronics MX Division (right), and Heo-e Chan, CEO of AT, who appeared as ordinary witnesses, are taking the witness oath.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] #. Samsung Electronics, which struggled with the Game Optimizing Service (GOS) issue immediately after the launch of the Galaxy S22 series in February this year, has been summoned again to the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee. Noh Tae-moon, President of Samsung Electronics' Mobile Experience (MX) Division, who appeared as a witness, explained, "Customer complaints have been largely resolved after the software update," but with investigations by the Fair Trade Commission ongoing, attention is focused on future developments. Apple, which faced controversy over the 'Battery Gate' incident, is also facing a class-action lawsuit worth over 1 trillion won in the UK this June, indicating that heating and performance issues in the smartphone industry will continue to attract attention.

On the 7th, President Noh Tae-moon spoke about the GOS controversy during the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee's audit targeting the Fair Trade Commission. In response to Democratic Party lawmaker Park Yong-jin's question that "GOS applies to many games, not just a few users," Noh said, "We are doing our best by globally testing thousands of games to ensure usability for gamers," and added, "GOS was created to address issues that could arise when games are run for extended periods."

Debate continued over the fundamental cause of the GOS incident. When lawmaker Park pointed out that "Samsung Electronics ignored internal opinions to strengthen hardware for cost compromise," Noh responded, "I think that is incorrect," and said, "Regardless of GOS, we faithfully guarantee consumer issues within legal standards and quality assurance. It is unrelated to whether GOS operates or not."

Regarding why consumers were given the option to turn the GOS function on or off after the incident, Noh explained, "Some consumers want the game to run stably even after long play, while others want the best performance from the start. We updated the software to satisfy those consumers, and since then, many complaints have been resolved."

The GOS application was pre-installed as a default system app on the new flagship smartphone S22 series released on February 10 this year. GOS automatically activates when running high-spec, high-resolution games on Galaxy smartphones. To prevent excessive device heating and battery drain, it adjusts the frame rate per second and GPU performance, lowering screen resolution. Throttling (reducing clock speed and voltage to prevent internal component damage due to overheating) is a natural phenomenon on PCs, laptops, and mobile devices.

Galaxy S22 Ultra. Photo by Samsung Electronics

However, consumers expressed anger that Samsung ▲installed GOS, which prevents the improved hardware features from being fully utilized, ▲pre-installed it as a default app without separate notification, and ▲blocked bypass methods. Especially, while the previous Galaxy S21 series had bypass methods, Samsung's introduction of a blanket restriction policy caused significant dissatisfaction. Criticism also arose that the S22 series was removed from Geekbench's performance evaluation list, lowering its external reputation to the same level as Chinese smartphones.

Samsung Electronics responded quickly to the issue with an urgent software update on March 10, including 'lifting the block on external apps that forcibly terminate GOS' for the S22. The response was evaluated as prompt after the problem occurred.

It is believed that Samsung's swift resolution of the GOS issue was influenced by Apple's 'Battery Gate' incident at the end of 2017. At that time, Apple limited the performance of iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 series devices simultaneously with the iOS 10.2.1 update without informing consumers. Apple explained, "When battery performance decreases, iPhones may suddenly shut down, so we limited some performance to prevent this," but the incident was ultimately resolved with an apology from Apple CEO Tim Cook. According to The Washington Post, in November 2020, Apple agreed to pay $113 million (approximately 126 billion won) in settlement following lawsuits from 34 U.S. states.

iPhone 7 series. Photo by Apple

Apple is currently involved in another similar lawsuit this year. According to Forbes, in June, UK consumer rights activist Justin Gutman filed a lawsuit with the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) demanding compensation for 25 million iPhone users in the UK related to the Battery Gate incident. The claimed compensation amount is ?768 million (approximately 1.21 trillion won).

Samsung cannot just watch from the sidelines. Some consumers have retained law firms and filed a class-action lawsuit related to the GOS incident. According to the 'Galaxy GOS Class Action' cafe, as of September 15, the trial date has not been set. The Fair Trade Commission is also reviewing the case after receiving a report in March alleging violation of the Act on Labeling and Advertising. Regarding the S22 series, which was promoted as having 'the best performance,' Samsung's failure to inform consumers about the GOS app in advance is expected to become a key issue. Attention is focused on the Fair Trade Commission's investigation and the progress of the class-action lawsuit.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.