South Korea OKs iPhone

According to media reports, Apple (AAPL - Analyst Report) has been approved by the telecommunications regulator in South Korea to sell its iPhone in the country. Apple did not make any comment on the same. We are pleased with the South Korean Communications Commission approval of the iPhone’s sale in the South Korean domestic market, which comes against the backdrop of the technical issues that required the iPhones to use South Korean technology for location-based services such as GPS. 

As a result, the Commission had previously blocked the sale of iPhone in South Korea because of its built-in mapping capabilities that violate a South Korean rule. The Commision’s spokesperson said that the approval to sell the iPhone device has been given by five commissioners during a meeting after amending a technical rule due to high consumer demand for iPhones. 

It is speculated that the iPhone will be sold in South Korea by October. Moreover, South Korea ’s second largest service provider KT Corp. (KTC) is in talks with the company to become the exclusive carrier for its iPhone. However, Apple has not commented on whether it will use a single service provider or multiple providers including SK Telecom Co. (SKM - Analyst Report) and LG Telecom Co. for the sale of its iPhone. 

We believe this approval will significantly boost Apple’s sale of iPhones and will also help it take market share from South Korea ’s largest handset makers Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. as well as from other domestic manufacturers. This may also start a price war between the dominant players in South Korea and Apple, which may require other players to cut prices of their respective handsets. 

According to a Wall Street Journal report, both Samsung and LG Electronics report that average prices for phones sold in South Korea are about double the average prices they get outside the country. The main growth driver for Apple is its higher iPhone sales. 

The company has sold over 13 million iPhones in the first nine months of fiscal 2009, a 182.0% increase from the comparable year-ago period. Thus iPhones have created a fortune for Apple and have become the major revenue driver for the company. 

In August, Apple signed an exclusive three-year agreement with China Unicom Ltd. (CHU - Analyst Report) to launch its iPhone 3G in China in the fourth-quarter of 2009. This deal is a good opportunity for Apple to market its iPhones in China . Thus, it looks as if Apple’s decision to expand the sale of iPhones into other regions is going to be successful.

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