Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's true - South Korea won!!! No, it wasn't a two-hours war with some (northern and communist) neighbor, and they didn't use government's resources to win the lottery, either. Since we're here, it should be obvious - South Korea won the right to be on the "iPhone list." If you're wondering about this list, the answer is very easy to find, but let me help you - I am talking about the (long) list containing all the countries where Apple's
iPhone is officially available.
After over a year spent on the US market, the iPhone is finally reaching some "dark corners" of the world, but I think South Korea is far from being such a place. So... why did it take so long for the iPhone to reach it?
The answer is that, unfortunately for those
who had to wait so long to have the iPhone available, South Korea requires a specific mobile platform, called WIPI, of which most is based on
Java. Apple got lucky, because this policy was changed early this week by the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), so carriers are now finally able to decide whether they want to use WIPI or not.
This restriction will become ineffective starting April, so South Korea won the iPhone, but will have to wait for its prize until 2009's spring...
One last thing that is known for now, since pricing and subscription plans are still secrets, is that SK Telecom and KTF are the companies chosen by Apple to be iPhone's official carriers in South Korea. Other than that, we should wait for the winter to end, and then we'll find out more about the South Korean iPhone.