`It`s a war - iPhone sales are explosive`

Phone salesperson Lee Geon-seok said he has been so busy with customers hoping to buy the newly released iPhone that he has not had time to eat.

He said iPhone sales reached 100 units per day at his two KT stores, accounting for around 80 percent of total handset sales there. "It`s a war. iPhone sales are explosive," Lee told The Korea Herald.

He said his store is running short of iPhones because of strong demand. Korean customers snapped up 70,000 iPhones as of Sunday - just eight days after its release in Korea, according to a KT spokesperson.

This is rare in the Korean handset market, which has been dominated by Samsung and LG. Global handset makers such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson have posted poor sales here.

It remains to be seen whether the initial strong sales of Apple`s iPhone, driven by pent-up demand, will continue. But for now, the small gadget is rattling the country`s mobile market.



Bitter Chocolate

The iPhone launch appears to have hit LG harder than Samsung. Sales of LG`s flagship phone Chocolate slumped this month, and the company has few competitive smartphone models.

"Sales of the Chocolate phone are meager," a KT spokesperson said yesterday, without giving the figure.

Top mobile carrier SK Telecom also said yesterday daily sales of the Chocolate slumped to 250 units this month, from 400 units last month.

This contrasts with Samsung`s new smartphone Omina 2, whose daily sales reached a whopping 5,000 units per day this month, SK said. SK Telecom, which does not offer the iPhone, sharply increased its subsidies for Omnia 2, to stave off the challenge from the iPhone.

The iPhone, which is offered exclusively via second-ranked KT, also posted 5,000 units of daily sales this month, according to a local report yesterday.

"Samsung and LG are under growing pressure to lower the prices for high-priced feature phones," Harrison Jo, an analyst at KB Investment & Securities, told The Korea Herald.

LG also delayed its planned rollout of its news Windows smartphone LG-LU2100 from this year, an LG spokesperson said yesterday. The handset maker recently saw its share falling amid mounting concerns about its weak smartphone business.

Analysts said its failure to respond to the fast-growing market segment could take a toll on the world`s No. 3 handset maker.

Samsung and LG are grappling to raise their profile in the global smartphone market, which is dominated by Apple, Nokia and Research In Motion.

"Unless LG eases investor concerns about its smartphone business, it will be difficult to find hope in its handset business," Jo said.

(hjjin@heraldm.com)



By Jin Hyun-joo