South Korean carrier KT has a hit on their hands! The iPhone is in hot demand and authorized retailers are quickly selling out of their allocations. The popularity of iPhone has taken many South Korean technology pundits by surprise. Particularly given the mobile phone hegemony heretofore enjoyed by South Korean handset manufacturers Samsung and LG.
An article in today’s Korea Herald covers the challenges faced by domestic brands in the wake of consumer excitement over the iPhone. While the sales of LG’s flagship Chocolate phone are down, the pace of iPhone sales continues to be strong. Here are a few quotes from the Korea Herald post:
Phone salesperson Lee Geon-seok said he has been so busy with customers hoping to buy the newly released iPhone that he has not had time to eat. He said iPhone sales reached 100 units per day at his two KT stores, accounting for around 80 percent of total handset sales there.
“It’s a war. iPhone sales are explosive,” Lee told The Korea Herald.
He said his store is running short of iPhones because of strong demand. Korean customers snapped up 70,000 iPhones as of Sunday — just eight days after its release in Korea, according to a KT spokesperson.
This is rare in the Korean handset market, which has been dominated by Samsung and LG. Global handset makers such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson have posted poor sales here.
It remains to be seen whether the initial strong sales of Apple’s iPhone, driven by pent-up demand, will continue. But for now, the small gadget is rattling the country’s mobile market.
i wanted to call to your attention the seemingly ‘backward’ practices of KT/Show (the iPhone carrier in Korea). For a good narration:
http://metropolitician.blogs.com/scribblings_of_the_metrop/2009/12/iphone-korea-not-for-foreigners-says-ktf.html