Apple’s iPhone will be officially available on the 28th of this month from South Korea’s second largest mobile phone carrier KT Corp, ending a long wait for South Korea.
KT Corp have been taking reservations for the SmartPhone and plan to hold a special launch event on Saturday for around 1,000 customers who have pre-ordered the phone.
“We are thrilled to bring iPhone to South Korea,” Kim Woo-sik, CEO of KT’s personal customer group, said in a press release.
“Our customers will enjoy the power and benefits of using the revolutionary iPhone on KT’s 3G network.”
There were talks between South Korea’s largest mobile phone carrier, SK Telecom Co and Apple with a view to SK Telecom taking on the SmartPhone but a deal was never finalised so KT Corp will be the first to launch it in South Korea.
South Korea is one of the last of the Asian Pacific countries to offer the iPhone, which was launched in China last month and Japan last year, and is already on sale in India and Australia. In fact the iPhone is now available in 86 countries across the globe.
Part of the reason for the delay in making the iPhone available in South Korea was due to regulations surrounding the location based services the iPhone offers.
Under South Korean law, any business offering location based services such as maps and direction finders has to obtain permission from the government first.
Korea Communications Commission finally approved the granting of a business license to Apple to offer the location based services on Wednesday meaning that the last of the obstacles had been overcome.
It remains to be seen though, whether Apple will be able to eat into the dominance those Asian based manufacturers like Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics as well as Pantech Co have in South Korea. Locals tend to favour these suppliers over others.
Collectively these three companies are responsible for more than 90 percent of sales of mobile phones in South Korea, a country where 46 million people possess a mobile phone, or roughly 9 out of 10 of the population.
Apple isn’t saying much on the matter. Steve Park, Apple’s spokesman in Seoul has confirmed KT Corp’s announcement but wouldn’t be drawn into commenting on any sales projections.
Yes, we’re all watching South Korea at the moment.
