South Korea upset over iPhone 4 delay

“The decision to drop South Korea from this week’s list of iPhone 4 launches has generated some controversy in the country, says the Wall Street Journal. Apple CEO Steve Jobs actually announced the move on July 16th, saying that it would ‘take us a little longer to get government approval there,'” Electronista reports. “The current Korean iPhone carrier, KT, initially insisted that a July 30th launch was still on track; the company was later forced to admit that the phone would arrive ‘in the coming months.'”

“Local media has reportedly been in an uproar, accusing Jobs of putting South Korea behind other countries, or outright lying about the delay’s causes. Officials in the South Korean government are said to be unhappy, since they have spent the last year removing trade barriers to make it easier to sell foreign phones,” Electronista reports. “Communications regulators, in fact, say that neither Apple nor KT have even submitted the iPhone 4 for approval.”

“The firestorm is said to be related to South Korea’s perception of itself as a leader in high technology,” Electronista reports. The country has some of the fastest cellular and Internet networks in the world, and is home to Samsung and LG, two of the world’s biggest electronics companies. Since the iPhone 3GS arrived nine months ago however local media had described a phenomenon known as ‘iPhone shock’ — a realization that Korean companies and the public are lagging behind in smartphone technology.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: The only thing shocking about it is its obviousness.