iPhone sales in South Korea break 1 million units

The Apple iPhone, the Jesus Phone, the phone that changed everything, the phone that enslaves young children in a prison built by the tyrannical Steve Jobs, or whatever you want to call the damn thing, has broken the 1 million units sold barrier in South Korea. Available exclusively on SK Telecom, who once had a stake in the U.S. market with the Helio MVNO before selling it to Virgin, but are now thinking about coming back by investing in the yet to be built LightSquared LTE network, the iPhone has been selling since the end of June of this year and is expected to break the 1.2 million units sold barrier early next month. Those extra 200,000 sales are from customers who pre-ordered the iPhone 4. SK Telecom’s biggest competitor, the 2nd largest operator in town called KT, says that they’ll have sold up to 2.5 million Samsung Galaxy S units by the end of the year.

Why the cock fight? Smartphone penetration in South Korea is still surprisingly less than 10% with only 7 out of every 100 people owning a device with an operating system that supports native applications. That’s a bit of a shock considering how that country is leading the world in both broadband adoption and new cases of internet addiction. You’d think these guys would want to maintain their plugged in state of mind while they go and shop for groceries. Total mobile phone penetration in South Korea stands at 50 million subscribers for 48 million people, which means that every man, woman, and child has a mobile phone and a few lucky people have two.

With Apple invading South Korea, imagine how Samsung and LG feel? While I wouldn’t go so far as to say they single handedly transformed their country from one who exports vegetables and grains into a nation of people addicted to Star Craft, they did contribute a significant part of the dramatic rise of standard of living that took place over the past 50 years.

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

Claude

The iPhone in SK is not offered by SK Telecom; it is offered by their primary competitor KT Corp.
SK Telecom is offering the Galaxy S.
You mixed up the names.
Benny Watson

I was so funny how you wrote, why the cock fight? And then like 3 words later wrote, penetration. Well done!
LA

Impressive amount of units sold for the Iphone there. I wonder how the Android stacks up in sales, I think they went into South Korea earlier this year.
effektd

When I visited South Korea for a business trip for meeting with Samsung, the iPhones were barely spoken about, all the local brands thrive in South Korea.

Samsung obviously having the most predominant smart phone.

The koreans didn’t seem to fussed about the apps and the appeal of the iPhone, however when I was over there the iPad had just been released and I could not have gone to a coffee shop in south korea that didn’t at least have one person using an iPad.

Culturally the Koreans are a bit behind, technology wise they are at the forefront.
- Spico
  
  The reason you haven’t heard of iPhone in Korea is because you went to Samsung. Samsung and SK employees are forbidden to have iPhones (SK because KT, which the article has backwards, is the sole provider of the iPhone). Just reading the news, watching the news, and talking with what interests people these days in Korea, the iPhone is without a doubt THE biggest talk in town.
  
  If you follow Korean news media, the iPhone 4 antenna-gate issue has been talked about more so than the American news, and the iPhone 4 wasn’t even scheduled to come out. There’s a long queue to just pre-order them right now. Samsung has not even seriously focused on smartphones (they were just experimenting with Omnia) till the iPhone hit the market. It’s only recent that Samsung released anything worthy of mention (the Galaxy S).
  
  I am not saying Apple’s iPhone is the best phone in the market right now. It’s not. Personally I think the Galaxy S is a lot better gadget wise than the iPhone 4. The only downside would be the OS, which the Android has been making huge gains recently. Eventually I think the local brands will brush off the iPhone just because of how much more familiar it is to the Korean population, but to say that the iPhone isn’t even talked about in Korea is nonsense. It’s probably discussed at least twice in one news segment. Take a public transportation and you’ll see more iPhones than any other smartphones.
Martin

I live in South Korea. The “2.5 million units of the Galaxy S by the end of the year” quote is a laugh, and a bunch of face-saving hooey. Samsung DOES NOT have the “predominant Smartphone.” Not by a longshot! The I-phone is everywhere. You can’t go 5 meters in a crowd without seeing one.

Even the newspapers in South Korea (which, in some cases, are owned by local tech giants) have poo-pooed the I-phone forever, attempting to pre-bomb the market with negativity, but it’s sold so well, there’s currently a 2 month backlog — yes 2 months!

The I-phone was kept out of the Korean market for 1 1/2 years due to protectionist policies. But today, everywhere you look, people are plinking away on I-phones. The Korean phonemakers are getting their heads handed to them so badly by Apple, it’s not even funny.

I looked into purchasing a Galaxy S phone just this past week. They’re hard to find, because availability is light. Despite running Android, the Galaxy S does not run Adobe Flash (that’s blocked). It does have DMB (sat. TV), a removeable battery, and a larger screen, but I was told it’s only got access to a Korean-controlled App store. It surfs well, but is nowhere near as finished-looking overall as the I-phone’s OS. It’s a very nice phone, but it’s still NOT an I-phone.

I totally believe what someone else posted about Samsung employees not being able to own an I-phone. Working for Samsung is like being in the military, and many employees are even expected to own Samsung cars (rebadged Nissans)!
Bill

I live in South Korea, and tested the Galaxy S in Myongdong. I have wanted to purchase a non-Apple phone for months, because I’m turned-off by Steve Jobs and his hubristic comments about antenna-gate. Also, I don’t like how snotty he gets with the public in personal e-mails. The Galaxy S is the first phone I’d consider remotely close to competing with the I-phone, so I was thrilled to see it.

Several Korean media outlets are owned by the same companies that make phones, and the anti-I-phone articles have been peppering the public for over a year. In fact, quirky local laws, arguably aimed at protectionism, kept the I-phone out of Korea for over 1 1/2 years. Competitors had all of the time in the world to create an alternative, but it just wasn’t happening. As a result, South Korean phone makers have had their hats handed to them by the I-phone within their own country. There is a lot of pride being damaged here.

The note made about selling 2.5 million units of the Galaxy S is not only impossible, it’s highly improbable, as the phones are just not available in numbers yet. I have only found one store that even has them, and that is in but one color choice. That store told me that a very limited number of Galaxy S phones were made available to begin with. I would say it’s most likely face-saving marketing hype to claim the Galaxy will double the number of I-phones. If you want a Galaxy S phone, you can get one in Myongdong (in black color). They cost about 900,000 won ($775) and the I-phone 4 is a little less than that. You can get a Galaxy S today, if you hunt several stores, but you’ll wait 2 MONTHS on a list to get an I-phone. My wife just got hers last week, and loves it.

As for the Galaxy S specs: The screen is larger than the I-phone 4, and is very nice/clear. Yes, the Galaxy does DMB (TV) but that service is barely treading water in Korea due to lack of interest, so I don’t see it having TV as a game-changer. The Galaxy has a removable battery, which is a step above the I-phone. The big downfall of the Galaxy S is how it’s app store is so Korean-controlled. One store told me you could run all Android apps on it, but another told me you can only access the ones hosted by the Korean telecom’s app store. Apparently, there is no connection available to download the thousands of apps available to English-speakers around the world? That really stinks, and I was sooo sad to hear it! Also, despite having Android as an OS, the Galaxy is NOT Adobe Flash compatible. They have chosen not to allow it on the Galaxy. In fact, every phone but one SKY phone in the store could even run Flash (and it was a reduced-quality/crippled version).

The I-phone has sold like hotcakes here. As mentioned, there is a 2 month waiting list. The Galaxy S’s sales will do well for now (once more widely available), merely for the fact that some people aren’t going to want to wait so long to get an I-phone 4. Currently, you can walk around town or ride the subway and see I-phones everywhere. They’re tremendously popular, which is hilarious given the fact that local newspapers were writing negative articles decrying how they just wouldn’t appeal to Koreans, and would be lucky to sell 100,000 to 300,000 units. Add a million to that number, and they’d be closer to correct (as of today, anyway).

And yes, it’s true that, as a rule, people who work at competing companies are not allowed to own an I-phone. That kind of thing is quite common here, but what really makes it nutty is how the unwritten rule extends to family members as well. Imagine losing your job because your son bought an I-phone?
- Bill
  
  Want to fix my own comment. I meant to say that only one Korean Android phone I found (the SKY phone, of which I forget the exact name) runs Adobe Flash, and at reduced quality.
  
  I should also add that Frisbee, the large Myongdong Apple store, had dedicated an entire floor to the I-phone 4. It’s always packed with people. The clone store just 3 shops down from it, which was designed to look like Frisbee but sells non I-phones, gets about 1/5 the business. There are 4 demo phones of the Galaxy S there, and you don’t have to wait very long to test them (if at all). If that’s any indication of which Koreans like better, then Apple is still king.
Artereon

Nice article, though you messed up a couple of things. iPhone is exclusively provided by KT not SK telecom. Galaxy S is available on SK Telecom. And one more thing, iPhone started to be sold not in June this year but in November last year and iPhone 4 has become available since September 10.