iPhone in Korea this August??

Little known fact: I used to live in Korea. I was born there, grew up in the Chicago area, and had the opportunity to live in Seoul from 2002-2005, so I’ve been trying to pay attention to this little drama.

The iPhone’s first hurdle in South Korea was a software requirement called WIPI which was finally lifted, and since then the country’s largest wireless carriers have been too busy wacking off to get a deal done. Ehhh ok maybe they weren’t actually wacking off, more likely they were probably trying to sucker Apple into some idiotic deal that would limit or cut off App Store and wifi access, but I’m sure those discussions ended with a lot of soju, noraebang, hookers, and ultimately a little wacking of some kind.

So anywaaaaayyy… it looks like the wait is finally coming to an end!

Although company officials declined to comment on the iPhone release, citing confidentiality issues, industry watchers expect KT to put the iPhone on shelves sometime in August…

This is coming from a MacDailyNews article published just a week ago. While I wouldn’t hold my breath for August… I’m assuming it’ll get delayed for some reason because that’s just how the tech world seems to operate… it’s awesome news to finally be hearing. Koreans have been pining for the iPhone forever, and opening the market to a country where nearly everyone has a cell phone can mean nothing but good things for everyone in the iPhone biz.