“Shall we go for a walk around Seokchon Lake together?”
On the morning of the 22nd, Jamsil, the fourth Apple Store in Korea, is located in Lotte World Mall, Songpa-gu, Seoul. At the pre-public event held two days before the official opening, a ‘Today at Apple’ session was held where employees could test Apple devices. In the process of going out to the nearby Seokchon Lake and looking around, drawing and coloring with iPad and Apple Pencil, users can naturally experience Apple according to the characteristics of ‘Jamsil’. Anyone can participate in the Seokchon Lake walking session by registering online.
Apple’s eyes on Korea’s recent ‘Samsung Garden’ are not unusual. The pace of expansion of the Apple Store, adapted to Korea, is getting faster and faster, and the first domestic introduction of Apple Pay, which many iPhone users have longed for, is also becoming visible at the end of the year this.
There are a total of four Apple Stores in Korea, starting from Garosu-gil, Yeouido, Myeong-dong, and Jamsil (in progress). It has been quiet for a while since the Garosu-gil store, the first domestic and global 500 store, opened in 2018 only, but the Yeouido store opened in February last year, and two more were added this year alone. As for the cycle, it gets shorter and shorter: 3 years, 1 year, 5 months. According to the industry, the 5th and 6th stores are expected to open one after the other in Sinnonhyeon and Hongik University in the near future. Considering the fact that there are up to 5 Apple Stores in Tokyo, Japan, the major iPhone user in Asia, it seems like a pretty aggressive strategy. In particular, there is a growing possibility that Apple Pay, which has not been introduced to Korea, will be introduced in cooperation with Hyundai Card within this year.
▲ Jamsil Apple Store branch to open on the 24th.
Since Korea is a special market where Galaxy Samsung Electronics and Samsung Pay are the dominant players, Apple has taken a passive strategy. According to the market research company Counterpoint Research, in the first quarter of this year, Samsung Electronics accounted for 77% of the domestic smartphone market, more than three times more than Apple (22%). However, in recent years, as the demand for premium smartphones in Korea has grown in the Asia-Pacific region, it is interpreted that the company has changed its target to an aggressive one.
However, some critics say that Apple’s alienation from Korea is still there. This is because Korea was excluded from the first and second launch countries of the recently announced flagship iPhone 14 smartphone series, and unlike the global market where prices were frozen, Korea had a significant increase in prices due to the high gain-dollar exchange rate. The iPhone 14 could not be seen at the Jamsil Apple Store branch that day. Yang Seung-soo, a researcher at Meritz Securities, said, “Since Apple stores are expanding all over the world, it cannot be said that Korea is particularly active.”
By Na Sang-hyeon and Yoon Yeon-jeong, staff reporters
