Apple storms into South Korea
Apple continues its retail invasion of Asia with an iPhone thrust into South Korea, where it has long been held at arms length by a bevy of technical regulations, now relaxed.
Although its base of users is primarily American, Apple has been enjoying an upswing in sales and popularity in Asia. Earlier this year the Cupertino company was voted the most admired multinational company in Asia in an annual Wall Street journal survey. Then it signed a deal with China Unicom to sell the iPhone into the largest cell phone market in the world. Now, it has finally succeeded in lobbying its way into a climate of positive regulations in South Korea, another huge smartphone market, that will allow the iPhone to go on sale there, according to an AP story.
The South Korean regulations for cell phones used in that country have long been skewed in such a way that only the home-grown South Korean manufacturers have had much of a chance there. The South Koreans have now simply lifted a legal ban on operation of location-based services by Apple. The government decided to allow Apple to operate the services itself in a “flexible” application of local law, according to a Commission spokesman. Without that clearance, Apple would have needed a local operator to run the location services and manage user privacy for the data gathered, which would have been highly problematic and costly for Apple.
With an opening $1.5 billion order for the Chinese market and a good chance at high revenues from a smartphone-hungry South Korea, it is easy to see that the Asian marketplace will be an important one for Apple in the coming years. It is possible to look into a future wherein sales in Asia, including those in India, could make op the majority of Apple’s worldwide sales. This revolution in international market share, if it happens, will have been primarily fueled by the iPhone, a relatively new Apple product. One has to wonder what changes an Asian-centric customer base would have on Apple.
Related Posts:
