14 DAY TRIAL // South Korean news agencies are reporting that Apple’s iPhone 4S is failing to make a splash in the country (despite having sold well in other markets), citing wireless operators there as saying that sales have peaked at 300,000 units combined at SK Telecom and Korea Telecom.
The Korea Times said customers are not to thrilled with the new phone, primarily because of its poor battery performance, lack of LTE (4G) networking and last, but not least, no Siri language support.
In fact, some unnamed carrier officials quoted in the piece said some customers downright canceled their pre-orders.
Apple fans and iPhone owners were interviewed as well. One such person said: “I dropped my plan to buy the iPhone 4S. It’s not wholly-new and also there are big problems relating to hardware-related issues. I am a big Apple fan. But I’m very disappointed by the uncompetitive iPhone 4S.”
The owner of a mobile phone shop said: “The key point is how Korean carriers effectively manage LTE networks to attract more clients. Since LTE is new, there are also complaints about its quality. If LTE services do well, then more people will switch as carriers give more subsidies to customers who buy LTE smartphones.”
One person who was completely dissatisfied with the iPhone 4S’ flagship feature, Siri, said: “Except for the ‘Siri’ function, I didn’t find any wow factors about the iPhone 4S and that’s why I decided to buy Samsung’s LTE smartphone.”
He echoed the beliefs of many Apple fans in the country explaining that “…Siri doesn’t support Korean language and that means the iPhone 4S is technically the same as the iPhone 4. Why should I pay more to buy the same thing? It’s nonsense to purchase the 4S just to show my personal tribute to the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs,” this person said.