“Continuing its most aggressive rollout of an iOS device to date, Apple on Friday launched its new iPad in a dozen more countries, starting with South Korea,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.
“Judging from the video below, the event in Seoul followed the usual over-the-top script, from the line sitters who show up the night before to the staffers whooping and hollering the next morning,” P.E.D. reports.
In addition to South Korea, the new iPad also will be available beginning on Friday, April 20 in Brunei, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malaysia, Panama, St Maarten, Uruguay and Venezuela. Beginning on Friday, April 27, the new iPad will be available in Colombia, Estonia, India, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, South Africa and Thailand.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Those crowds, occurring around the world, are one very big thing from Apple that Samsung can’t seem to slavish copy – not even in their own country.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz,””Dan K.,” and “David E.” for the heads up.]
So much for that legendary Korean brand loyalty…
I mean, seriously, how does South Korea get a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and here, in Denver CO, we’re without one.
Maybe because Seoul is a city with a population of 14 million people.
Nuclear war? I don’t wanna die… I’m next in line to buy…
Betrayer soldiers. hahahahahah
What hell are you talking about?
As a Korean-American who grew up in Korea, I can assure you that most Koreans don’t consider Samsung a cool or a “hip” brand. I mean, they use Samsung rice cookers in the kitchen, live in Samsung-built and branded apartment complexes, buy life insurance sold by Samsung, get treated at Samsung hospitals, commute in Samsung buses, buy stuff at Samsung department stores, and on and on and on… They’re tired of having the Samsung name in their face wherever they go, as am I whenever I go there and I’ll have to deal with that again next week on a business trip.
Frisbee?
For some reason there aren’t Apple Stores in Korea yet. There are just resellers and the carriers that mostly sell iPhones and iPads. I think that mostly has to do with Macs being still very weak in Korea even though that’s slowly changing (much slower than here in the US). I doubt the Mac marketshare in Korea is even 3%.
That’s also largely due to the fact Koreans are addicted to flash and Internet explorer. Almost every Korean website is littered wirh flash and requires ie to be used properly
Unlike iOS, Macs run Flash fine. I don’t think Flash is what is tying them to the WinTel hegemony. With more time and the continued enthusiasm seen for iOS devices, hopefully a little bit of that halo-effect will kick in.
Macs are certainly gaining popularity in Korea due to the halo-effect but it’ll take some time. Part of the problem is the dearth of Korean language apps specifically written for the Mac. Another problem is that Korea (like most of east Asia) is still a fairly conformist society and people are less willing to against the “norm,” which is the entrenched WinTel hegemony in the PC side of things. The iPhone and iPad are recognized as the “first movers” there so the adoption has been quick.
Translation of first buyer interview: “With new iPad, I can ditch my girlfriend. iPad never talk back, never make me buy tampons at store, and never make watch sh@t like the “Lucky One” at the movies. So happy. I want to cry.”
LOL!!!!!
heh.
LOL Thanks!
HTML5 Gordon, meet HTML5 Pants!
What was with the ZDnet Windows 8 banner on the iPad @ 1:48-1:50? I was actually enjoying the video…