New iPhones hit shelves in Korea

By Lee Min-hyung

Apple’s latest smartphones ― the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus ― have hit shelves in Korea, heating up the intense competition against Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics to take a bigger slice in the local premium handset market.

The nation’s three mobile carriers ― SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus ― started to sell the new Apple flagship handsets here Friday, offering a series of promotional activities to steal more customers from its rivals.

Even though the new iPhones came with no surprises, the Apple handsets are known to have doubled in pre-orders in the Korean market, compared with its predecessor ― the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, according to the mobile carriers. Specific sales figures have yet to be unveiled.

But it still remains to be seen whether the explosive initial response will continue and pose any serious threat to its Korean handset rivals, Samsung and LG, which dominate the smartphone market here. Samsung has a more than 70 percent share compared to Apple’s 20 percent.

Upon its launch, the local telecom operators held massive media and customer events in a bid to fill the sales void of the recently-scrapped Galaxy Note 7 from Samsung.

SK Telecom, the nation’s largest mobile carrier, offered an overseas travel ticket worth 2 million won ($1,760) for the first person to purchase the iPhone 7 through its network service.

“We offered a series of special gifts for buyers of the new iPhone including Blutooth headphones, smart beam projectors or mobile data coupons to attract young customers as most iPhone fans are in their 20s and 30s,” an SK Telecom spokesman said.

KT also held its own promotional event, offering an iPad Pro and Apple Watch Series 2 and a contract to use KT’s mobile service for free for a year.

As part of its efforts to build a loyal customer base, the company also unveiled its “iPhone Change-up” program in which its iPhone users can upgrade to a new model next year without paying off the remaining charges once they return their device to KT.

With Samsung Electronics suffering the aftermath of a global recall of the Note 7 over reported battery fires, Apple is also facing setbacks over a series of reports that the device is also catching fire for unconfirmed reasons in China and Australia.

In particular, Apple Australia is investigating a recent case in which an iPhone 7 user claimed that his car was full of smoke after putting his phone under clothes in the vehicle, according to a recent report by the local newspaper, The Australian.