Roger Fingas
The first batch of South Korean preorders for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus sold out within minutes on Monday at the country's three major cellphone carriers, setting a blockbuster pace ahead of Friday's official launch.
One of the companies, KT, topped 10,000 orders within one minute and closed applications less than 10 minutes later after 50,000 preorder units were claimed, Yonhap reported. Similarly, LG Uplus halted preorders within five minutes.
SK Telecom took slightly longer to end preorders, shuttering them after 30 minutes. The company declined to say how many units it recorded, but market watchers quoted by Yonhap estimate the figure at 50,000.
KT opened up a second round of reservations later in the day, but didn't comment on performance.
The latest iPhones will launch in Korea on Friday, Oct. 23. Preorders had been scheduled for last week, but were delayed for reasons unknown. Yonhap pointed to speculation that telecom authorities asked carriers to avoid "overheating" the market.
The iPhone is a popular device in South Korea, in spite of two of Apple's biggest competitors — Samsung and LG — being based in the region. Samsung in fact recently cut the price of the Galaxy S6 to 799,700 won ($706), also preparing a "pink gold" option to match Apple's rose gold. LG recently launched its V10 phone for 799,700 won, a rare thing in a market where flagship phones typically start over 800,000 won.
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
53 Comments
Wait what's this? Oh yeah Apple is Doomed!
Now all Samsung needs to do is limit preorders for their next S7 to two or three in the US, so they can claim they should led out faster ;)
I'd love to be a fly on the wall at Samsung's HQ to see the expressions on their faces if this news is in fact accurate.
ScamScum puts out such crap, it's sweet schadenfreude for me.
The news of the Samsung 'Pink Gold' (or Rose Gold copy) colour they are rushing out seems to of made a difference. /s
What? S Koreans getting tired of being hacked and taken for suckers? Perhaps security and an excellent OS do matter!