By 

EVAN RAMSTAD
SEOUL—Apple Inc.'s iPhone on
Saturday will finally go on sale in
South Korea, a country that prides
itself on creating and consuming
cutting-edge technology but where
the government raised trade barriers
on smart phones to protect domestic
manufacturers and carriers for
several years.
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Associated Press
A screen at a local store in Seoul
showing an ad for Apple's iPhone,
which goes on sale Saturday.
Since the availability and pricing of
the iPhone was announced here last
week, about 40,000 people placed
pre-orders for it and the country's
biggest seller of phones, Samsung
Electronics Co., slashed the price of
its most advanced and expensive
phone, a touch-screen model like the
iPhone called Omnia2.
Even so, the iPhone hasn't gotten the
hype in South Korea that it has in
other countries and Apple faces a
huge market bias for domestic-made
phones, chiefly those by Samsung
and LG Electronics Co., which
together sell about 90% of the
cellphones here.
Since the South Korean government
in September exempted Apple from a
rule that blocked smart phones, the
country's newspapers and Internet
message boards have been filled with
criticism of iPhone and Apple,
questioning the product's quality and
company's service after a sale.
"A lot of people here, the Korean
media, are very critical of iPhone,"
says Chin Wonsuk, a filmmaker in
Seoul who used an iPhone in the
U.S. before moving here last year.
"But no one has used it here before.
They don't know what it can do."
Apple executives have stayed out of
the fray. A company spokesman
declined comment except to confirm
product specifications and that
software will be available through
Internet downloads.
A spokesman for KT Corp., the
carrier offering iPhone, says it
expects the iPhone to sell more
quickly than in other countries
because Koreans consider
cellphones a way to express status
and trendiness.
In Japan, Apple experienced a slow
ramp-up of sales after the iPhone
became available two years ago. And
in China, where Apple last month
began selling the phone, sales have
been slow due to modifications the
company made at the government's
request and the existence of a
massive gray market.
South Korea for a nearly a decade
has been able to boast one of the
world's most advanced cellphone
systems, with three carriers offering
fast service everywhere, even in
subways and remote mountaintops.
Samsung and LG grew to become
the world's second- and third-largest
cellphone makers, respectively.
But South Koreans pay the highest
prices in the world for cellphones and
among the highest for wireless
service. The average selling price for
Samsung and LG phones is nearly
twice as much in South Korea as it is
outside the country.
The iPhone is already changing the
pricing dynamic. KT will offer three
iPhone models under monthly usage
plans with charges ranging from
45,000 won to 95,000 won, or about
$40 to $80. Depending on which plan
is chosen, the iPhone's price ranges
from $342 to free.
Samsung responded this week by
making its Omnia2 phone free for
people who buy an $80 monthly plan
on SK Telecom Co., one of KT's
rivals. It cut the $900 price on other
plans to around $300.
Kim Beom-suk, a public relations
executive in Seoul who has long said
he wanted an iPhone, now says he
may get an Omnia2 instead.
"Compared to just last week, the
price of Omnia is about half," he
says.
The iPhone's arrival will also end the
control that South Korea's cellphone
makers and carriers, including KT,
have had on the software that runs on
phones. Applications for iPhone will
be available through Apple's online
service or directly from software
makers.
"The most appealing part of iPhone is
the variety of applications," says Lee
Jae-gon, a Seoul businessman who
pre-ordered one. "In the case of the
domestic phones, you only use
programs that are pre-installed on
them."
Some Korean software firms and
media companies already provide
applications that South Koreans use
on Apple's iPod Touch but that will
also work on iPhone. A major
broadcaster, MBC, provides one that
allows reception of its radio broadcast
and a Web portal company, Daum
Communications Inc., provides one
that offers clips of Korean TV shows.
"I think misinformation about the
iPhone by some of the domestic
press backfired because people
already knew about the apps through
iPod Touch," says Lee Sung-jin, a
steel company worker who is known
as South Korea's first iPhone user
because he bought one in Australia in
July and personally paid for its
technical review by Korean
government regulators.
—Jaeyeon Woo 
contributed to this article.
pple's iPhone, the most popular
handset available on the market
at the moment, is set to become
available on the South Korean
mobile phone market as soon as
today. Not only does its arrival
offer users in the country the
possibility to choose yet another
appealing device, beside those
already present on the market,
but it is also expected to
determine other handset vendors
to lower the price tags for their
devices. 
According to a recent article on
Korea Times, the iPhone is
expected to spur price cuts for
mobile phones delivered to the
local market by handset vendors
like Samsung Electronics or LG
Electronics. Moreover, it seems
that the availability of Apple's
iconic device via KT is also
expected to offer
the wireless carrier the possibility
to become more competitive
against rival SK Telecom, the
largest operator in the country. 

The new site say that KT is

estimated to have received
around 50,000 pre-orders for the
handset already, turning the
iPhone into the most popular
handset that comes to the South
Korean market from outside the
country. The price tag for the 32
GB iPhone 3GS has been set at
369,000 won (around $317) for
those willing to sign for a contract
agreement on a 45,000 won
(about $38) per month. 

Moreover, the wireless
carrier will have the iPhone
available for around $225
(264,000 won) upon the signing
of a contract on a $55 (65,000
won) per month plan, and for free
on the $112 (132,000 won) price
plan. Additionally, the price tag
for the 8-gigabtye iPhones is said
to have been set at 132,000 won
(around $112) on the 45,000 won
(about $38) monthly plan. 

The said price war seems to have

started already, and SK Telecom
performed price cuts for some of
its handsets. Among them, the
flagship Samsung T-Omnia II,
previously priced at 924,000 won
(about $796) for the 4GB model,
is now priced at 880,000 won
(around $750). As for the 8GB
version of the same handset, its
price tag has been lowered to
924,000 won ($796), down from
the 968,000 won (about $825)
price tag it featured before. SK
Telecom has the phone available
for free on a 95,000 won ($81)
per month price plan. 

Other handset vendors present
on the South Korea market are
also expected to lower the price
tag for their devices, including
LG, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and
HTC. Not to mention that SK
Telecom might come with
additional appealing offers to
counterbalance the iPhone
popularity. “Mobile operators are
now increasing their spending on
handset subsidies on smart
phones. Although the increasing
costs are a concern, there is a
reason to think that consumers
will benefit,” said an official from
the Korea Communications
Commission (KCC)'s policy
bureau, reports Korea Times.