iPhone 6s & 6s Plus preorders sell out within 30 minutes in Samsung's home of South Korea

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.