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JungMin
Joined: 18 May 2005
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 Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 5:37 pm Post subject: New iPhone released....but still nothing for Korea. |
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As expected the new iPhone was announced on yesterday....Faster this, better that, etc. I had my fingers crossed for some information on it coming to S. Korea, but nothing. Here is a list of countries its available in. There are a few 'upcoming' countries, but no Korea.
Last edited by JungMin on Mon Jun 08, 2009 6:48 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
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| Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 5:41 pm Post subject: |
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Korea is still trying to get a handle on allowing the first I-phone in here properly. Thanks to the I-phone and Korea's market protection measures, Korea has lost its edge in consumer phone technology and functionality.
In short, they took themselves out of the game for fear of the competition. |
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JungMin
Joined: 18 May 2005
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| Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 6:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Agreed. Mobile phones here in Korea are garbage for the most part....far behind what's available elsewhere in the world. |
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 7:00 pm Post subject: |
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Samsung and LG do have their smartphones that rival what the iphone can do..........but they charge something like 800,000 for them. When you have a captive market, you can do that. Make something a prestige product for the elite only and make huge profit margins on it.
Elsewhere, the competition between Apple, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola etc drives down the price of new tech quite quickly.
There's very little competition in Korea. Samsung and LG only pretend they're competing. |
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pkang0202
Joined: 09 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 11:33 pm Post subject: |
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You make the assumption that if there was competition, Koreans would buy the lower priced product.
How many Koreans do you know that buy Samsung/LG over a cheaper, same quality foreign manufacturer?
iPhone can come to Korea and people would still pay 900,000w for the Samsung OMNIA because the Korean guy from Boys over Flowers would be afvertising it on TV.
Yes, a handful of people would buy the iPhone, but I bet you that the vast majority of Koreans would pay the extra to get the "Samsung" or "LG" phone. |
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jvalmer
Joined: 06 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 1:39 am Post subject: |
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The iPhone would do as well as it does in Japan, which is not too well. It's doing okay in Japan, but not great.
It's Apple that has got to get it's head out of it's butt and let the vendors more freedom to customize the features and advertising of the iPhone. |
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dazzed
Joined: 26 May 2007
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| Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 3:00 am Post subject: |
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| jvalmer wrote: |
| It's Apple that has got to get it's head out of it's butt and let the vendors more freedom to customize the features and advertising of the iPhone. |
Good Luck with that with Jobs at the helm |
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red_devil
Joined: 30 Jun 2008
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 3:32 am Post subject: |
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I disagree. This isn't a PC. I think Apple has doing just fine the way they're doing things now for the most part. The iPhone 3GS and OS 3.0 has pretty much silenced most of the grumbling, (not sure why they didn't include a flash in the camera though).
I'm still hoping the iPhone pushes its way into Korea, even though we know LG and Samsung have most of the gov't in their back pockets. Korea still remains as one of the most corrupt modern countries...i'm suspecting the reason why the iPhone has had various ups and downs in various countries is the access to the apps. The US still has the best and most selection of apps. Unless Korea can get a bunch of good apps, and the Korean developer community buys into the development of it, you can consider the iPhone DOA...Omnia, Haptic, all have more powerful hardware features than the iPhone 3GS. I think the iPhone 3GS has a more powerful OS though...provided that it get's DMB.
I'd still exchange my Haptic for it in a second - largely because of the compatibility with my Macbook Pro, and i love the QWERTYU touch keyboard...i hate having to hit the same key 3 times to get the letter i want, so much slower.
P.S. I noticed that the iPhone shows keyboard language and dictionary support for Korean which points out that Apple intended to launch in Korea but probably faced a ton of political/procedural BS from the Korean gov't. |
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bassexpander
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Location: Someplace you'd rather be.
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| Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 5:15 am Post subject: |
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Unless I'm mistaken, not a single Korean phone provides free wifi access, or ability to use applications like Skype.
That in itself makes the Korean phones outdated in my book.
Then they've got to protect their .mp3 player markets by making all of the phones suck for .mp3 use. |
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swigs
Joined: 20 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 6:38 am Post subject: |
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Korean phones and Korean companies are pretty lame in general now that I've lived here and seen it first hand.
The Iphone kills these Korean phones and yet it's not even allowed to compete even though America is probably Korea's largest export market. (At least one of the largest, if not the largest) Talk about unfair.
For this reason, I'll never buy a Korean phone. Besides, my LG phone here and the one I had in the states had a crappy electrical system that would burn out if I kept it on too long. The Ipod touch is never turned off and keeps on going.
They copy copyrighted technology...
Although Samsung does know how to make nice monitors/tv's. But their phones are lame.
I plan to get the Iphone once I get back, 3Gs seems pretty rocking. Just wish they had cheaper data plans. But I can't wait to use apps that use the GPS with the compass, etc. So many amazing apps are written for the Iphone, with so many different themes for cheap affordable prices. Plus the OS is stable as a rock and rarely ever crashes. |
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ppcg4
Joined: 16 Oct 2008
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 6:11 pm Post subject: |
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| pkang0202 wrote: |
You make the assumption that if there was competition, Koreans would buy the lower priced product.
How many Koreans do you know that buy Samsung/LG over a cheaper, same quality foreign manufacturer?
iPhone can come to Korea and people would still pay 900,000w for the Samsung OMNIA because the Korean guy from Boys over Flowers would be afvertising it on TV.
Yes, a handful of people would buy the iPhone, but I bet you that the vast majority of Koreans would pay the extra to get the "Samsung" or "LG" phone. |
True.
Someone should write a book on how the chaebol of Korea managed to convince the people of Korea that everything made by Korean companies is the best quality in the world and that living in a 900 sq ft apartment is the bees knees. |
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red_devil
Joined: 30 Jun 2008
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 6:48 pm Post subject: |
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| eamo wrote: |
| pkang0202 wrote: |
You make the assumption that if there was competition, Koreans would buy the lower priced product.
How many Koreans do you know that buy Samsung/LG over a cheaper, same quality foreign manufacturer?
iPhone can come to Korea and people would still pay 900,000w for the Samsung OMNIA because the Korean guy from Boys over Flowers would be afvertising it on TV.
Yes, a handful of people would buy the iPhone, but I bet you that the vast majority of Koreans would pay the extra to get the "Samsung" or "LG" phone. |
True.
Someone should write a book on how the chaebol of Korea managed to convince the people of Korea that everything made by Korean companies is the best quality in the world and that living in a 900 sq ft apartment is the bees knees. |
As a domestic economic model it's quite amazing how well it works. As it is today, both Japan and Korea have to import so much goods, if this pro "Made in Korea" sentiment wasn't prevalent it would create a much weaker economic model...unless the exports were strong(er) to make up for it. And it wasn't created by the Chaebol so much as was seeded by initial investments by US and foreign gov'ts following the Korean war. It was done much the same in Japan as well after WWII. And the Japanese are just as fiercely "Japanese products �ber Alles" as Koreans are.
Anyways back on topic - it seems Apple really listened to a lot of the comments this time. Glad they finally got landscape keyboard and copy/paste. They pretty much answered most of my other complaints i had. No flash on the camera puzzles me, but isn't a deal breaker. No Adobe flash player support in Safari (i heard it's coming though) ranks higher on my list. Someone at Apple must have something against "flash"...har har har. |
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DCJames
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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red_devil
Joined: 30 Jun 2008
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 1:37 am Post subject: |
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| bassexpander wrote: |
Unless I'm mistaken, not a single Korean phone provides free wifi access, or ability to use applications like Skype.
That in itself makes the Korean phones outdated in my book.
Then they've got to protect their .mp3 player markets by making all of the phones suck for .mp3 use. |
You could feasibly use the iTouch with Skype and use a 3rd party microphone accessory? |
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