It’s been 2 months since the iPhone was launched in Korea. More interesting phenomenons that have developed since.

Apple was never a big player in the Korean consumer electronics market. Whereas the iPod was synonymous with mp3 player all over the world, Korea had its own brands such as iRiver, Samsung and Cowon that provided better functions at a more competitive price. There was a time in Korea when the iPod was ranked 13th in mp3 player sales.
In the personal computer market, with most of the internet sites in Korea utilizing Activ X, and all of the online games being played on a window environment, other than professional designers, consumers weren’t considering the Mac as an option at all.
Apple was a niche brand that only the early adopters praised, a computer used for design work and nothing else.

And then came the launch of the iPhone in Korea.
The iPhone sold over 200,000 units in a span of one month, topping the best seller list in the local smartphone market in the shortest period of time.

Rumor has it Samsung tried to strong-arm the Korean Telecom companies into not launching the iPhone in the Korean market. SK telecom, the biggest telecom company in Korea, gave into the pressure of Samsung, while the chaser KT chose to defy them. Samsung’s displeasure in KT’s action was reflected in the price of the Omnia II smart phone. The Omnia II for KT was priced approximately 200,000 Won higher than the same model for SK telecom or LG telecom.

A recent research done with smart phone early adopters in Korea provided more bad taste in the mouth for Samsung.
Overall satisfaction, recommendation, and repurchase intentions were measured. iPhone scored 85% in all 3 categories. The other smart phone group, which consisted of Sony Ericsson, Nokia and  LG among others, scored 60% in overall satisfaction and recommendation, and 30% in repurchase intention. Samsung’s Omnia II scored 44% in satisfaction, 51% in recommendation, and 28% in repurchase intention.
The research mentioned iPhone attained the highest score ever, and no Samsung phone ever attained such a low score.
8 categories were scored to assess the satisfaction score. iPhone received the highest score in4 of the categories, the other smart phones received the highest score in 3 of the categories, while Samsung Omnia II received the lowest score in 6 of the categories.

A high ranked officer of Samsung Electronics recently noted that the sudden popularity of the iPhone in the Korean market was nothing more than a fad created by the netizens. Samsung is confident that they will be back in the smart phone market with a strong line up of products that are lined up for 2010.

Since the launch of the iPhone, the brand Apple isn’t a niche brand anymore. The iPhone is currently the trendiest item to have.
Daum, one of Korea’s biggest portal site, NCSoft, one of the world’s biggest online game creator, Doosan, a Korean conglomerate, advertising agencies and other companies gave all of their employees an iPhone.

Where the iPod was the bridge that closed the gap between the mass consumers and the Mac OS worldwide, the iPhone is spearheading the same role in the Korean market. Sales of Apple’s Macbook in Korea has gone up dramatically.
Compared to last year, before the launch of the iPhone, Macbook sales in January has increased by 50 to 60 percent.

Motorola just launched its Android phone Motoroi in Korea. Because of legal issues between Apple and Nokia in the U.S., there are rumors Korea might be one of the launching grounds for the next iPhone. Samsung and LG are rumored to have Snapdragon based smart phones released soon. With the Google phone Nexus looming as well, 2010 will be an interesting and exciting time for the smart phone consumers, while the competition has gone up a notch for all of the smart phone providers.

One more interesting situation that has arisen with the launch of the iPhone is related to the iTune Shop. Because the Korean government requires all computer games pass a local regulatory approval before launch, and because there are already thousands of games pre-existing in the iTune Shop that hasn’t passed this old, outdated regulation of trying to control content with physical borders, Apple didn’t include the Game section in the Korean iTune Shop. Of course, this doesn’t mean iPhone users in Korea aren’t playing any games with their iPhones. They have found loopholes in the iTune Shop registering process and and are downloading and installing all the games they want and bought. No news on how the Korean government agencies are reacting to this new borderless world…