iPhone 4 reaches consumers this week

By Kim Tong-hyung

The long wait for the iPhone 4, the newest version of Apple’s do-it-all smartphone, is about to end for Korean consumers, at least for those who can get their hands on the devices as early as Friday.

KT, the Korean mobile-phone operator that exclusively provides the iPhones here, said it will launch the iPhone 4 officially this week, fueling an intensifying smartphone war that pits the Apple gadgets against a slew of smartphones powered by the Google-backed Android operating system, such as the Samsung Electronics Galaxy S.

KT has received more than 270,000 preorders for the iPhone 4, which it hopes will exceed the popularity of its predecessor, the iPhone 3GS, of which the carrier managed to sell more than 800,000 since its release in November.

The price of the 16-gigabyte iPhone 4 was set at 264,000 won ($224) on the condition of a two-year contract, while the 32-gigabyte version will sell for 396,000 won.

``The iPhone 4 is a revolutionary device, and by combining it with KT’s overall strengths in wireless communications networks, users are about to experience some innovative changes in their everyday lives,’’ said Pyo Hyun-myung who heads KT’s wireless business.

It’s not that everyone will be getting their iPhone 4 handsets by Friday though, as KT says it won’t be until Sept. 25 that it completes the delivery of the phones to those who managed to apply within the first phase of preorders that started on Aug. 18. KT began accepting its second round of preorders on Aug. 27, and secured an additional 43,000 new customers through Saturday.

The iPhone 4 represents the country’s most anticipated release since, well, the debut of the iPhone 3GS. The latest iPhone trumps its predecessor in terms of speed and brilliance of display, powered by Apple’s own A4 processor that operates at a clock frequency of 1 gigahertz and featuring a ``Retina’’ display that has four times the number of pixels as previous iPhones. The ``Face Time’’ video conversation ability is another distinctive feature of the iPhone 4.

After being a hard sell in past years due to their high prices and lack of a content ecosystem, smartphones are now flying off the shelves here, thanks to the introduction of intriguing devices like the iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy S.

Industry watchers expect four to five million smartphones to be sold in Korea this year, compared to just 300,000 or more sold before the arrival of the iPhone in November.

SK, Google team up on content

The sexiness of devices is just one part of the smartphone war, which is increasingly becoming more about the wealth of content. Apple enjoys a lopsided advantage in content due to the thousands of global developers providing a slew of content to its App Store online applications store for the iPhones and iPod Touch multimedia players.

This has the rest of the industry scrambling to respond, and SK Telecom, the country’s biggest mobile-phone carrier, somewhat alarmed by KT’s iPhone-enabled rise, is no exception.

SK Telecom, which relies on Android-backed devices produced by Samsung, Motorola, HTC and Sony Ericsson, announced it will collaborate with Google Korea to foster a developers’ network here, with an immediate focus on business-related applications tailored for corporate clients.

KT’s advantage in Wi-Fi networks is also a concern for SK Telecom, which is now responding by promoting unlimited monthly data plans for third generation (3G) cellular networks. SK Telecom announced Sunday that the subscribers to the monthly fixed-rate plans exceeded 1 million.

아이폰4 이번 주 출시

애플 아이폰4에 대한 지루한 기다림이 끝나가고 있다. 애플의 휴대전화 제품을 국내에 독점공급하고 있는 KT는 이번 주 금요일부터 예약 고객에게 아이폰4를 우선으로 제공할 것이라고 밝혔다. 지금까지 국내에서 아이폰4를 예약 가입한 유저는 27만명에 이른다.

아이폰4의 공식출시로 국내 스마트폰 시장은 한층 더 가열될 전망이다. 현재 국내 스마트폰 시장은 애플의 전 스마트폰 모델인 아이폰3GS에 삼성의 갤럭시S를 비롯한 다수의 구글 안드로이드 기반 단말기들이 대결하는 형국이었다.

KT는 지금까지 아이폰3GS를 80만대 넘게 팔았으며 아이폰4가 애플 제품에 대한 국내 소비자들의 열기를 이어갈 것이라 기대하고 있다.

2년 약정계약을 기준으로 16기가바이트 아이폰4는 26만 4천원에 판매될 예정이며 32기가바이트 모델은 39만 6천원에 판매될 예정이다.