“The Korea Communications Commission approved the granting of a business license to Apple to offer so-called location based services, said Oh Sang-jin, director of the commission’s privacy protection and ethics division,” Olsen reports.
“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,” Olsen reports. “The approval was the last major regulatory hurdle the company faced in bringing the iPhone to South Korea, Oh said.”
Full article here.
Rhee So-eui reports for Reuters, “iPhone’s entry could weigh on local market leaders, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, which are also the world’s second and third-biggest mobile phone makers.”
“KT Corp., the country’s No. 2 mobile carrier which has been negotiating with Apple to introduce iPhone, said sales could start soon but did not provide a date for the launch,” So-eui reports. “In April, South Korea also lifted a rule that forced mobile phones sold locally to use a home-grown platform, opening the market to more foreign models… Prior to the rule change, foreign handset makers avoided the market.”
Full article here.
Just to put it into context. I saw a week ago a report that Samsung’s latest smartphone was only selling less than 1000 units a week in Korea, so, don’t expect iPhone sales to be more than a drop in the bucket. Expect Apple-haters to jump all over Korean sales as a failure, when it says more about the Korean smartphone market than anything.
iPhone is a universal phenomena. The is the world before iPhone and the changed world after iPhone.
That is a fact that will never go away.
iPhone is ubiquitous. 5 years from now almost everyone everywhere will have an iPhone.
having lived in Korea for the last 20 years, I can assure all that the correct spelling, in this line, should have been:
director of the commission’s “piracy” protection and ethics division