Summary: The whold world is waiting in anxiety as Apple is about to release their latest model of the "3G Iphone." The touch-screen, multi-media playing phone has gained much popularity in the U.S, Europe and different parts of the world. But it seems like Korea will just not quite take a "bite" out of the Apple. Korea, which is one of the most high-tech countries with swavy devices, is more comfortable with the local devices. Nokia and google are not too popular in Korea either. The problem with Korea not biting the apple is that the phone industry is controlled by two major companies: Samsung and LG. Over 80 percent of the cell phone industry is taken over by these two companies. LG beat Apple by 3 months in introducing a touch screen model phone last year. Most of the phones in Korea already have functions such as a digital camera, radio, TV broadcasting, navigators, and many other tools that are practically useful.
Opinion: What the Iphone needs to do is market the Iphone in Korea. Koreans are a very trendy group of people. The tools and the functions are important, but in my opinion the slender design and the innovative interphase is already appealing enough to attract Korean users. What lacks from Apple is advertising to the common people of Korea. Many Koreans have only heard of the APPLE air laptop, or APPLE IPOD. Most of them have not been exposed to these foreign devices. If a famous celebrity in Korea comes on TV with the new Apple 3G iphone and show the feautures that it has, I am pretty sure that it will become an instant success. If you look at Starbucks, it took them 3 years to actually get into the culture of Korea. Shin-Saegae and other big companies have promoted Starbucks, and developed the elite culture that implicitly said that if you hold a Starbucks cup it means that you are a successful person. What Apple needs to do is develop a similar kind of culture in Korea. Maybe they need a different approach from what Starbucks did. Maybe instead of developing the elite culture, they could develop the "young" culture, that it would be hip and cool if you have a 3G I-phone. If the product is introduced and people start using the product, the power of the word of mouth in Korea will take effect, and soon everyone will be using the new, hip, cool 3G I -phone
