Recent reports have indicated that sales of the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone 4S were unexpectedly slow in the South Korean market as some users have expressed disappointment over the lack of features and poor performance of the device. According to reports, the absence of 4G LTE support and battery life issues have resulted to users opting to pass on the iPhone 4S.
Pre-sale figures of the iPhone 4S reportedly reached around 300,000 units for Korea Telecom and SK Telecom according to anonymous officials in the service providers. Some of the pre-orders for the device were reportedly canceled.
Some iPhone 4 users reportedly dropped their plans in order to purchase the iPhone 4S although some were disappointed with the device as it is not entirely new and a number of hard-ware related problems have been reported.
Some users spoke out against the iPhone 4S, which reportedly did not live up to their expectations of the device. The success of the iPhone 4S was also put off by the absence of 4G LTE support. The need for speed was reportedly more important than their desire to acquire the latest version of the Apple iPhone.
Service providers in Korea manage their LTE networks in order to become more appealing to more smartphone users and if the LTE service is not sufficient enough users have the tendency to switch to another carrier that offers additional subsidies for buyers of LTE smartphones.
Aside from the Siri feature of iPhone 4S, some users have not noted any other feature that will appeal to users which is the reason why some South Korean users are purchasing an LTE smartphone from Samsung (SEO:005930). Siri also does not provide support for the Korean language which has made it basically similar to the iPhone 4.
The Apple iPhone 4S has been enjoying successful launches in other markets outside of the United States as Apple revealed that the device has achieved a record sale of over four million during the first weekend after its debut. This has made the iPhone 4S as the best-selling smartphone even though its launch was limited to less than ten markets.
