Korean Job Discussion Forums

ulmaeri · Joined: 26 Sep 2007

How much data are people expecting to use on average? The employee at the Frisbee in Hongdae told me it was possible to upgrade your plan from the Light to the Medium. He seems to think that if you do that, you could get a refund on the difference of the phone price. Other than using maps away from wifi access points, what else do you guys expect to be downloading. I plan on only Maps, Twitter, and maybe email. I wish I knew what the average data amount was.

Vimfuego · Joined: 10 Apr 2009

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

oskinny1 · Joined: 10 Nov 2006 Location: Right behind you!

Gnawbert · Joined: 23 Oct 2007 Location: The Internet

I'm curious how many people here who actually have reserved or purchased one have an E-2. I was flat out told by my local Show store it was "not possibure" for E-2's. This was after he spoke into the phone with someone somewhere who seemed to be saying something official.

bangbayed · Joined: 01 Dec 2005 Location: Seoul

steveohan · Joined: 24 Apr 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

if you're on an e2 and want to get the subsidy, expect to be raped on the monthly charges. this is the pricing breakdown for foreigners:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AsCnyr22qy-AdDZpWUNiVFczLTdEZnN5dHdzWFlCX0E&hl=en

my suggestion is just buy the phone outright and use it with one of the kt iphone plans.

TKDBOY · Joined: 25 Feb 2008 Location: Busan

steveohan · Joined: 24 Apr 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

it was taken offline i guess...

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

Other handset makers must secretly be pooping their pants now:

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2913173

50,000 pre-orders just as of Thursday.

Those of us who own I-pod Touch's should start acting like we're talking on them in the subways, and tell people that foreigners were given first choice of these phones. Laughing

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

Is it in the stores today? Anyone go to a Show store to find out?

red_devil · Joined: 30 Jun 2008 Location: Korea

Most heavy users i talked to said that they don't really use much more than 500MB but i'd get the 1GB plan just to be safe. Also as far as app downloading you can download the app to your computer and sync it with the iPhone so you're not using your data "minutes".

I heard that it's ok to upgrade to a better plan but for some reason they can't downgrade you. Sounds like a load of BS but that's what the KTF CS rep said.

ulmaeri · Joined: 26 Sep 2007

Well, just got back from the Frisbee store. Seems that I reserved my iPhone too late. Too many orders, so I will have to wait until later next week for mine.

Anyone luck out and get their phone today?

Murakano · Joined: 10 Sep 2009

iPhone's debut in S.Korea means paradigm shift: experts

SEOUL (AFP) - Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL - news) 's top selling iPhone made its debut in South Korea Saturday with experts saying the iconic smartphone is likely to serve as a wake-up call for an IT industry basking in an isolated market.
Hundreds of people lined up overnight outside the Olympic stadium in Seoul to pick up their iPhone as soon as it was launched.

The Internet and multimedia enabled iPhone immediately emerged as the country's most popular smartphone with nearly 60,000 people making online pre-sale orders, according to KT Corp, local distributor of iPhone.

KT Corp, South Korea's second largest mobile carrier, said its deal with Apple will dent the dominance of rival SK Telecom (017670.KS - news) , which has a 50.5 percent share of the local mobile market compared with KT's 31 percent.

KT set the price of the 32-gigabyte iPhone 3GS at 396,000 won (338 dollars) for customers who subscribe with a monthly service fee of 45,000 won. The price is 264,000 won for customers who subscribe with a monthly fee of 65,000 won.

The introduction of the smartphone with its vast range of applications sparked immediate price competition.

Samsung Electronics, one of the world's largest mobile makers, slashed the cost of its most advanced and expensive phone, an eight-gigabyte touch-screen model called Omnia2, by 44,000 won to 924,000 won.

The iPhone has proved to be a massive hit in markets such as the United States and Europe but ran into problems before launching in South Korea due to concerns that location services such as "Google Maps" would breach a privacy law.

Its sale was finally approved in September by telecom regulators who said such services would not encroach on privacy.

South Korean firms have grown under the protection of high trade barriers, which have helped Samsung and LG (003550.KS - news) become the world's second and third largest handset makers.

But local customers pay the highest prices in the world for mobile phones and among the highest for wireless service.

Hongsun Kim of Ahnlab (A053800.KQ - news) , South Korea's top IT anti-virus and security solution provider, welcomed iPhone's debut in the country, which he said would bring about a "paradigm shift" toward mobile applications and contents.

"iPhone's philosophy is centred on various applications and contents. Mobile telecommunication is just a part of its software," he wrote on his company's website.

"The key word in IT is global openness but as many bloggers point out, South Korea is becoming like the Galapagos Islands of IT," he said in reference to the country's closed IT market.

"There is no country in the world like South Korea which claims itself as an IT powerhouse. But it is not a right direction for us to lock ourselves in and get satisfied with our own achievement," he said.

http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/28112009/323/iphone-s-debut-s-korea-means-paradigm-shift-experts.html