Sales of the iPhone, the iconic mobile device made by Apple, have broken the half-million mark in the four months since its South Korean market debut, KT said Thursday. KT, which sells the iPhone here, said South Korea was one of the seven countries in the world where sales of the smartphone topped 500,000 in less than a year. The telecom operator, also the nation’s second-largest mobile carrier, said it activates 4,000 new iPhones every day. The iPhone went on sale in South Korea on Nov. 28, 2009, becoming one of the last major Asian countries to get the Apple’s flagship product, following releases in Japan, India, Australia and China.Last year, the South Korean government granted the Cupertino, California-based Apple permission to use so-called location based services, such as maps, in the iPhone.Four months after entering the domestic market, which is dominated by South Korean mobile phone giants Samsung and LG, Apple became the first foreign phone maker with a top selling smartphone.
The Omnia2, a smartphone model by Samsung Electronics Co., surpassed 600,000 sales mark on March 30. A KT official said the iPhone’s introduction helped spur the use of wireless data, giving the wireless services industry a boost and bringing down prices of using wireless data. The iPhone has also created new mobile software and content markets in South Korea that are estimated at 470 billion won, as well as a market worth some 230 billion won for iPhone-related devices and accessories.
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