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The Register: 'iPod Fails to Impress South Koreans'

Thursday, August 11th, 2005 at 3:05 PM - by Staff

The Register's Tony Smith on Thursday reported that Apple's share of the MP3 player market in South Korea is 1.8%, which places it 13th in that country. In contrast, iRiver leads the way with 35% of the market while Samsung holds 14%. The numbers were assembled by the Korean subsidiary of market analysis firm GfK, which counts actual purchases by consumers instead of shipments to retailers.

According to Mr. Smith, Apple's failure to latch on in South Korea is "unsurprising given the differences between local music players and Apple's. It's generally held that the Mac maker's minimalist approach to design and, arguably, functionality plays better with Western audiences than South Korean firms' preference for machines crammed with features and sporting a mass of controls and coloured lights."

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Aug 11, 2005 3:32 pm

Given how well the iPod does in Japan, this is obviously not a Western versus Eastern aesthetic issue. Maybe Korean patriotism/nationalism?

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Aug 11, 2005 3:52 pm

Well its probably not patriotism as much as simply a preference. If they are used to devices with tons of "features" and lots of buttons and lights, then one would not expect them to be attracted to the iPod. Fair enough. You like what you like.

Japan is a special case. They kind of do their own thing. I'd be more interested to see how iPod does in other asian countries.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Aug 11, 2005 5:49 pm

Suprising? Yes, and no - iRiver does some good work. Samsung not. The latter is probably a trusted name there, I guess.

If I were to buy any ohter player, it would be an iRiver. The H10, probably, except that in Australia, it is over-priced, making the iPod the better buy, unless you must have those extra functions.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Aug 11, 2005 7:39 pm

Besides the love of featureitis, I think "Buy Korean" is definitely a factor. You'd be hard-pressed to find any American brand trump a Korean name over there.

Samsung is dominant in Korea. It's become a significant brand name throughout Asia, rivaling and surpassing Sony. (See the Brand study recently reported on in Business Week.) And iRiver is a Korean company.

And do we know how much marketing Apple has done over there? I think not much.

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A guest said: (hide)

Thu Aug 11, 2005 8:41 pm

I can attest from first-hand experience that Korean business patriotism keeps a lot of "western" stuff out, at least in terms of technology. Hell... it's hard to find an american CAR over there, let alone some electronic gizmo.

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