iPhone lands in Korea

SEOUL

The iPhone’s arrival in South Korea is generating considerable buzz among consumers and industry watchers amid expectations it will shake up a market dominated by world-beating domestic manufacturers. “I can’t wait to get my iPhone,” said Na Hae-bin, 30, a market researcher at an Internet company who reserved one as soon as he could. “My heart was beating fast.”

Judging from pre-orders that started Nov. 22, Apple Inc.’s hit communications device appears set to make serious inroads in South Korea - home to some of the world’s most sophisticated mobile phone users.

So far, KT Corp., the local mobile carrier that has contracted with Apple to sell service plans for the phone, says it has received 53,000 advance orders ahead of Saturday’s official launch.

Such numbers have impressed analysts.

“This is phenomenal,” said Hwang Sung-jin, who monitors the industry at Prudential Investment & Securities Co. in Seoul.

“The iPhone’s release will definitely stiffen competition for local companies such as Samsung and LG,” Mr. Hwang said.

But he added it is difficult to assess how much of an inroad the iPhone will make in the growing domestic smartphone market, which he said totaled about 400,000 users at the end of the third quarter.

Smartphones are advanced mobile phones that have computer-like capabilities and features such as surfing the Internet and can play music, show movies and determine locations and find directions.

Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. are estimated together to account for more than 80 percent of the total domestic mobile phone market of about 47 million handsets.

Samsung, which is the world’s second-largest seller of mobile phones behind Finland’s Nokia Corp., said it expects the iPhone will “invigorate the South Korean smartphone market.”

Lauren Kim, a spokeswoman for SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s largest mobile carrier, cited the iPhone’s arrival as “one of the factors” behind price cuts announced this week for service plans for Samsung’s Omnia II smartphone.

LG, which ranks No. 3 worldwide, said it has not changed its prices in response to the iPhone.

The iPhone’s introduction has been eagerly awaited. It was delayed by regulatory hurdles, the last of which was overcome this month when the Korea Communications Commission approved the granting of a business license to Apple to offer so-called location-based services.

Location-based services include functions such as maps and direction finders that are included on the iPhone. South Korean law requires companies that provide such applications to obtain government permission.

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