iPhone 4 sales top 2 million

KT, Korea’s exclusive iPhone seller, announced yesterday that sales of Apple’s hit smartphone broke the 2 million mark in Korea.

The company, the largest fixed-line operator and the second-largest mobile service operator in Korea, began selling the iPhone 3GS in November 2009 and the iPhone 4 last September.

The number of iPhone 4’s sold - 1.03 million - outstripped the number of iPhone 3GS’ sold by 53,000, KT said.

“We were able to achieve this because the iPhone is an excellent product coupled with KT’s competitive service, billing plans and network infrastructure,” said Pyo Hyun-myung, president of the company’s mobile business division.

It took four months for the iPhone 4 to sell 1 million units. KT sold 500,000 units of the previous model in its first four months.

“We believe this reflects not only the high customer satisfaction for iPhone 3GS, but also the expanded customer base of smartphones in general,” a company official said.

There were 7 million smartphone users in Korea at the end of last year.

Forty percent of iPhone 4 buyers were found to be women, KT said - 28 percent for the iPhone 3GS.

And 31 percent of iPhone 4 users live outside Seoul and the metropolitan area - 24 percent for iPhone 3GS users.

The company also added that iPhone 4 customers used twice the data compared to people using the iPhone 3GS.

By Kim Hyung-eun [hkim@joongang.co.kr]