iPhone 6 & 6 Plus preorders outpace Galaxy Note 4 in Samsung's home country of South Korea

While preorders for Apple's new iPhones are estimated to have hit the six-figure mark in South Korea, presales for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 were less than half that in a similar timeframe, at just 30,000 units, according to The Wall Street Journal. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are set to reach consumers' hands in South Korea this Friday.

The bulk of preorders in have been through carrier KT Corp., which was the first to offer the iPhone in Korea. It reported that presales for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus exceeded 50,000 units in just 30 minutes.

Another 20,000 preorders were handled in the first 20 minutes by LG Uplus Corp., while SK Telecom Co. declined to offer specific figures.

The presales suggest that Apple could make significant gains in South Korea, a market where it has just a 6 percent market share. Samsung is unsurprisingly the dominant player in its home country, accounting for 63 percent of devices.

Samsung itself admitted last month that it launched the Galaxy Note 4 early in South Korea and China because consumers showed a "positive reaction" to the announcement of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The Galaxy Note 4 debuted in September, and made its way to the U.S. earlier this month.

The iPhone 6 Plus, in particular, is Apple's response to the popular "phablet" trend of jumbo-sized smartphones. Up until the debut of the iPhone 6 Plus, Samsung's stylus-based Galaxy Note series was the most popular phablet model.

The fourth-generation Galaxy Note features a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED screen that's slightly larger than the iPhone 6 Plus. But graphics tests have shown the Galaxy Note 4 falls behind the iPhone 6 Plus in terms of performance.