[j00n]

Via Korea Times article:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/natio.../133_30830.html

However, it would certainly be a joke to identify iPhone, right now the hippest gadget on Earth, as a smart phone for tie-wearing corporate customers.

I'm not quite sure what he means by this. With the new iPhone 3G and the additional features such as MS Exchange support, and Cisco Secure VPN it most certainly IS a contender for the corporate sector.

LG & Samsung make up 90% of the market...a dual monopoly over the handset market in Korea. OF COURSE they wouldn't want regulations changed from WIPI because it would allow foreign competition such as the iPhone. Once again policy restricts the free market in Korea, the result of much money given to politicians and lobbists under the table i'm sure...all this is a joke when considering that Japan is getting the iPhone.

[**windi/hongy**]

the iphone is NOT a contender for the corporate sector, I've heard of too many problems with their ms exchange support

[little mixed girl]

almost no one in japan has the iphone.
i've seen like 3...maybe 4 ppl with one....and it could have been an ipod touch.

i don't see why it matters whether or not the iphone is in korea or not, korea's already got better phones anyways.

[정유미]

^i agree. korea has better phones, so they pretty much don't need the iphone. ^^

[erure]

Yeah, but people always want what they can't get. A lot of Korean people I've met were fascinated with my iPhone and wanted to get one of their own when (not anymore I guess) it came out in Korea. It's probably that they just want something new and fresh since Korean phones are getting kind of boring... And SKY phones used to be so good but now they're getting poopy... The design's good, but their cameras used to all have 2.0mp camera + autofocus and now they're all 1.3mp -.-

[WitchGoddess]

Korea has lots of great touch screens phones like the samsung omnia, haptic, and lg phones too. I guess I can kind of see why people would want the iphone. It has a great internet browser and it organizes music and photos well.

[j00n]

the iphone is NOT a contender for the corporate sector, I've heard of too many problems with their ms exchange support

Not me, i've seen it used in many Enterprise level companies just fine. I've used it myself with full Exchange support. My guess is that Exchange itself is probably not set up correctly. Also that alone wouldn't kick the iPhone out of the corporate sector by a LONG shot. And even if it was an iPhone only issue...a software or firmware update would fix that easily; gee whiz i'd take that over having the entire Blackberry network go down...twice.

almost no one in japan has the iphone.
i've seen like 3...maybe 4 ppl with one....and it could have been an ipod touch.

i don't see why it matters whether or not the iphone is in korea or not, korea's already got better phones anyways.

The iPhone has just barely launched in Japan, it will take some time as Japan is an already saturated market. Also i don't believe Korea has that much better phones. Most definitely they have a better infrastructure and network, but having more features on your phone because you have a better network doesn't mean it's a better handset. I think with the iPhone SDK being opened up to developers, you're going to see the iPhone explode in a lot of different areas. Samsung and LG have already made several strategic directions to combat the iPhone, namely launching their own CLONES of it. That in itself should say enough about the iPhones influence. Korean tech markets are best at taking something that's a given success and adapting, copying, improving, adjusting it. They are not very good innovators, as shown by their scramble to push out iPhone clones.

[little mixed girl]

^
i dunno, LG had a touch phone out a year before the iphone came out.
it think it's more like LG had a touch phone and samsung was working on getting a competitor out.

you could also say the same thing about japan, for innovation.

as to features, aren't applications just features that you've chosen?
applications aren't too big in japan, maybe not in korea either.
if you have a smartphone type of phone, you might be used to using them, but japan/korea don't seem too interested in the smartphones.
at least in japan they only just started coming out last year.

whether or not apple is a good phone or not depends on the person, but i don't see why it's a big deal whether or not this country or that country buys/likes apple products.