Korean Demand for iPhone 6 Surpasses That of Galaxy Note 4

The iPhone could dominate Samsung in its homeland; at least this is what the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus pre-orders suggest. In less than an hour, demand for Apple’s latest iPhones outpaced that for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 launched in September (via the Wall Street Journal).

Three of Korea’s biggest carriers took tens of thousands of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus pre-orders in less than 60 minutes. Actually, the demand was so high that KT, for example, received 10,000 pre-orders in the first minute of taking orders, and it topped 50,000 orders in thirty minutes.
Another player, LG Uplus, says it received 20,000 orders for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus combined in 20 minutes. That’s 1,000 per minute, or (roughly) 17 iPhones per second.

“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.

SK Telecom, didn’t disclose specific figures, but says that the “first and second batch of presale orders” for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have been fully booked. But this didn’t stop the carrier opening up its third round this morning.

If we can believe the analysts, total pre-orders topped 100,000 units, compared to 30,000 for the Galaxy Note 4 within a similar time frame.

Looking at the Korean market, we find that Apple’s market share was at 6% in the second quarter, well behind Samsung’s 63%.