South Korea clears iPhone for sale
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Sep 23rd 2009 12:59AM
posted Sep 23rd 2009 12:59AM
What, you didn't know you couldn't buy the iPhone from at least one carrier in all 193 widely-recognized sovereign nations of the world? It's true; one need look no further than South Korea, one of the most technologically-advanced wireless societies, where much of the growth over the past several years has occurred in a self-imposed bubble thanks to the existence of policies requiring the presence of a custom software layer for connecting to data services -- a layer that gave local players like Samsung and LG an almost impenetrable advantage over foreign competition. Local authorities have been loosening those restrictions in recent months, and the Wall Street Journal is reporting this evening that they've just signed off on a waiver that would allow the iPhone to be sold despite a "technical ban" that had been keeping it off shelves. Local carrier KT had been saying for a while that it intended to carry the phone, so this step seems like little more than a formality -- but in a market accustomed to T-DMB tuners, limitless color choices, and wide VGA AMOLED displays, it'll be interesting to see whether there's profit to be had.
I'm pretty sure Apple will manage to find some dorks in South Korea too
Now that the 'local' companies have invested in capacitive screens and semi-decent OS's, they let the iPhone in. I don't think this would have happened if the country thought that their local phone manufacturers would not stand a chance.
Personally, I don't care for the iPhone. But I think that it will do just fine over there.
Hey Jouten who is that on your avatar?
It will be the first real competitor of the Samsungs, becasue the korean (and japanese too) mobile market is pretty unanimous. The Samsung have 80-90% in the mobile market share in S. Korea with the political influence. But now, i hope they learn what means the free trade in that "technologically-advanced" market. It's better for koreans and probably better for Samsung, if they can make something unique and not just play with big numbers and nice tags.
That's not true, since Samsung only owns slightly more than 50% of Korean market.
Link? Anyway, you answered to the the least important thing in my post.