The iPhone 6s/Plus seems pretty popular already in Samsung’s home market of Korea, despite only going on sale today. All three major carriers earlier reported that they quickly sold out when the new iPhones were made available for pre-order on Monday. Now Patently Apple notes queues of hundreds of people at retail stores, with some having waited in line for 24 hours …
Local brands Samsung and LG were clearly concerned, having both dropped the prices of their flagship devices prior to the iPhone 6s/Plus going on sale in Korea, and Samsung making its Galaxy Note 5 available in a similar pink color to Apple’s rose gold. The Korea Herald reports that more than 30% of iPhone 6s/Plus pre-orders were for rose gold models.
Samsung and Apple enjoy a rather uneasy relationship as both competitors and partners, the two having had endless patent battles in court while the company is one of two suppliers of the A9 chip used in the latest iPhones.
The new iPhones went on sale in India and Malaysia last week, with Apple promising they will be on sale in more than 130 countries by the end of the year.
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This has got to be embarrassing for Samsung. They’ll probably start paying people to stand in line at their stores now.
Lol now all those Samsung commercials of Apple buyers in line are biting them in ass.
Wall Street continues to claim consumers will soon be avoiding higher-priced iPhones for the less expensive Android smartphones. However, this doesn’t appear to be happening just yet. I’m surprised because I thought S. Koreans would be buying the reduced price flagship Samsung smartphones. All the critics were saying how much better the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge were than the iPhone 6s and 6s+. It’s possible S. Korean consumers like the idea of getting that upgrade plan where they can get a new iPhone every year. Samsung is going to come up short when they introduce the Galaxy S7 next year. How many consumers are going to be left to buy the next Samsung flagship smartphones if so many consumers are buying iPhones. There’s only so much Samsung can do to add features or increase specs without adding to the cost of manufacture and still be cost competitive with Apple, and try to turn a profit.
South Korea is a big place, so I don’t think that the initial sales of iPhones are a good representation of the general populations choice of preferred smart phone.
Really? What planet are you living on? And actually, South Korea is a pretty small place – smaller than Ohio, but with about 5x the population.
freerange5// South Korea has a 50 million smartphone market size, 25% size of USA. It isn’t a small size. 10% use iPhone and 90% use Samsung or LG phones.
@medianjm – what absolute nonsense! If you are going to make such a ridiculous post, it would be advised that you do some basic research first:
“Apple’s marketshare in South Korea has skyrocketed in the last quarter, driven by strong demand for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, according to data by Counterpoint. Apple increased its share of sales from 15% to 33%, more than doubling its market power in one quarter.
Historically, Samsung has dominated South Korea, largely due to geographic advantages, but Apple’s gains now threaten the #1 spot. Apple is the first foreign smartphone company ever to surpass 20% marketshare in the region, taking the number 2 spot. Samsung’s marketshare fell from 60% in November to 46% and (now third-place) South Korean LG Electronics fell to 14%.”
And this is from January of 2015. As to South Korea’s size, again, it is a very small place – smaller than Ohio. This has fk all to do with how many people it has – As I stated earlier, it has about 5x the population of Ohio, but that still doesn’t change the fact that it is a small place. As to population, it is less than Beijing and Shanghai combined. The only thing that really matters here is that Apple is crushing it in South Korea. Period! So fk you samesung!
Yearly upgrade plan is only available in US ………..
Tried the new phones from Samsung in electronic stores, they all sound low comparing with iPhone and LG, they all suck and they’re just clones with different sizes and specs!
The main reason Koreans were using Galaxy phones prior to the iphone 6 were the screen size. With the 6/6S and their large screen, aesthetic color choices, and speed, I have seen a large portion of Koreans either switch to iPhone or actively want to switch to an iPhone next time they are able. The fact that it is happening among the Korean population should be worrisome to Samsung as it is quickly losing the battle in the “luxury” or high-end smartphone space.
Completely correct. In fact, Samsung worldwide in 2011 and 2012 took a HUGE market share because at the time, the Samsung Galaxy S II and Samsung Galaxy S III were technically WAY ahead of the competing Apple phones of the same period (iPhone 4S and 5). But once Apple eliminated its biggest advantage–namely the too-small screen size–with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ in the fall of 2014, Samsung Galaxy S sales pretty much dropped dramatically, even though the Galaxy S 6 series are pretty competent phones.
I switched from iPhone 6 to galaxy note 5 and felt happy for sometimes. 2 days ago I sold my note 5 and when to tmobile and bought an iPhone 6s.
Yes I liked the amazing s-pen and all its features but the google play felt way behind to me when comparing it to Appstore. I couldn’t stand the lack of updates to my apps. I prefer a simpler interface and thus I went back to ios. Also saI don’t know if it is only me of is it because of the switch but I think the touch screen on the note 5 is not accurate when I type on the keyboard. Even sometimes when I touch and email to open it, the email below that email is what get opened!
I hope with ios 10 and iphone 7s plus, apple will bring the apple pencil support to the iPhone.
does that banner say 5G?
i had bought the 6s plus and was being delivered on ups truck…i refused it…i just don,t like the ios operating system..it looks cartoonist, and the display not up to what samsung and others offer…maybe i will get the apple 7 if things change
Looking at the atmosphere in these days here in S. Korea, I feel quite awkward to see the title of this article. Even though it is true that S. Korea is “geographical” home market of Samsung, most people here no longer choose Samsung devices just because it is produced by domestic company, and this is true when you look at the rapidly increasing portion of S. Koreans who use iPhones. Maybe I could be a little bit sensitive, but I personally (as a native) think it’s weird that the article sounds like S. Koreans are obeying Samsung no matter what, though I understand that’s the common view outside S. Korea.
Though I know S. Korea is the geographical home country of Samsung, I feel quite awkward to see the title because the article sounds like S. Koreans would choose Samsung devices *just because* it is produced by a domestic company, which is not necessarily true. People here barely use Galaxy just because it’s Samsung, but maybe iPhones 6 and 6 plus fit pretty well to S. Koreans’ taste. Reading the article and the comments, I wanna say they’re mostly right, but just would like to point out the atmosphere could be a little bit different from what is being discussed here.
Though I know S. Korea is the geographical home country of Samsung, I feel quite awkward to see the title because the article sounds like S. Koreans would choose Samsung devices *just because* it is produced by a domestic company, which is not necessarily true. People here barely use Galaxy just because it’s Samsung, but maybe iPhones 6 and 6 plus fit pretty well to S. Koreans’ taste. Reading the article and the comments, I wanna say they’re mostly right, but just would like to point out the atmosphere could be a little bit different from what is being discussed here.