Carriers in South Korea have put Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus pre-order estimates at 100,000 and above, which is almost three times more than the pre-orders collected for Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4. With this happening on Samsung’s own turf, is Apple all set to increase its smartphone market share?
The iPhone 6 / 6 Plus were officially launched for pre-orders on Friday, with the three major South Korean players reporting that over tens of thousands of units were sold in under an hour, by each carrier. This pace of increase in pre-orders has completely overshadowed the one that was seen by the Galaxy Note 4.
South Korea’s largest mobile carrier, SK Telecom Co. did not comment on the specific figures of the pre-orders it had received, but to put things in perspective; the carrier has the first and second batch of pre-orders for the iPhone 6 / 6 Plus fully booked.
Meanwhile, KT Corp., which was the first South Korean company to introduce the iPhone to the country’s market reported that it had received almost 10,000 pre-orders in one minute, and had topped 50,000 in the first thirty minutes alone.
The third carrier, LG Uplus Corp., will be selling the iPhone for the first time, but has already received 20,000 pre-orders in an impressive 20 minutes.
Before the Galaxy Note 4 was launched in South Korea, reports noted that it had racked up around 30,000 pre-orders with the carriers, which as mentioned, is almost one-third of the iPhone 6 / 6 Plus’ onslaught. The iPhone 6 / 6 Plus is yet to be released on October 31st, and it will be interesting to see what the actual sales figure turn out to be.
Just a few weeks back, Apple had defied all odds in China, with the iPhone 6 / 6 Plus grabbing pre-orders that outnumbered the figures seen for the U.S. itself, speculating that a change in consumer mindset is around the corner, now that the devices have plenty of screen real-estate to offer as well.
Currently Apple holds a 6% handset market share in South Korea, ranking in at number 4; however, if these pre-orders estimates are anything to go by, this share could drastically increase in the near future.
(Source: WSJ)
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