
The Korean media are hitting out at Apple for “turning their back on Korea”. This is simply not true at all.
Apple would love the iPhone to be sold in Korea, they know a lot of tech savvy Koreans would love to get their hands on the iPhone, they know that there is a huge market in Korea and they know the iPhone will be successful.
The problem is not with Apple. The problem is with the telecom companies in Korea. Both SK and KTF claim to be in talks with Apple, this is quite possibly true. But what they are demanding is the removal of many of the applications that make the iPhone what it is. For example, Korean telecom companies do not want the iPhone to be WIFI enabled. What they want is for Korean users to have to use the internet through their own telephone network. Apple say no to this because it would dramatically slow down the internet speeds and disable many of the sat-nav functions. It would also make using the internet on an iPhone impossibly expensive.
The telecom companies are also demanding that many of the applications available on the iPhone be removed from a Korean iTunes (for example the Skype App). Again, to protect the Korean consumer, Apple are refusing to do this.
The real reason why the iPhone is not coming to Korea in the neat future is not Apple, it is the profit hungry telecom companies who want to make huge profits at the expense of the Korean consumer.
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