The WSJ reports Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus went on pre-order in South Korea on Friday, racking up pre-orders of over 100,000 units. Pre-orders for home grown Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 totaled a third of that, coming in at around 30,000 units for the same time frame when it launched pre-orders back in September.
On Friday, the country’s three mobile carriers began taking orders for both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. In less than an hour, the carriers reported that orders had reached tens of thousands, outpacing the rate reported for Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy Note 4 model at its launch here in September.
KT Corp. reported that the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus models together scored 10,000 orders in one minute, topping 50,000 orders in thirty minutes.
LG Uplus Corp., which is selling the iPhone for the first time, said it received 20,000 orders for the new iPhones within 20 minutes.
SK Telecom Co,. South Korea’s largest mobile carrier, declined to give specific figures, but confirmed that the first and second batch of pre-orders for the new iPhones have been fully booked.
South Korea’s other two carriers are also taking pre-sale orders. The iPhones will hit store shelves on Friday, October 31.
Analysts estimate that pre-orders for the new iPhones have totaled an estimated 100,000 units, topping the estimated 30,000 pre-sale units the Galaxy Note 4 racked up in a similar time frame.
Apple Korean handset market share sat at 6% in the second quarter, compared to Samsung’s 63%, LG Electronics’ 22%, and Pantech’s 7%. (Via Counterpoint Research)
“But with Apple piggybacking on Samsung’s large-screen strategy, there are concerns that Samsung will lose its only advantage, which has been its large screen sizes,” said Lee Seung-woo, an analyst with IBK Securities in Seoul.
