Apple will open its first retail store in South Korea this year, according to a report on Friday (via Reuters).

The country's Yonhap News Agency said that construction was underway for a store in the southern district of Seoul and that work on the site would likely be completed by the end of November.

seoul

Image: Flickr

"We're excited about opening our first Apple Store in Korea, one of the world's economic centers and a leader in telecommunication and technology, with a vibrant K-culture," Apple told Reuters in a statement Friday.

"We're now hiring the team that will offer our customers in Seoul the service, education and entertainment that is loved by Apple customers around the world."

Yesterday, Apple listed hiring notices for 15 positions on its website, including a store leader and business manager. The exact location and start time for the jobs was omitted from the listings.

Apple's first Korean brick-and-mortar store will be in Samsung's back yard – the rival smartphone maker has its main headquarters in Suwon, about 13 miles south of the capital city.

Tags: Apple Store, South Korea

Top Rated Comments

Jashanno Avatar
Jashanno
95 months ago
A few Korean customers might be more open to trying something new than they would be otherwise. But the new generation of processors for Samsung S8's sound really sweet, so we shall see.
I went there recently for work. I was shocked at the number of iPhones that I saw people using.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kabeyun Avatar
Kabeyun
95 months ago
let's not confuse tech consumption with being tech-forward.
having everything under the sun is VERY costly for Samsung. If the Note 7 debacle costs them 6 billion in losses (according to Bloomberg) then thinning out their A series and Galaxy Series to just 3 models vs 10+ you'd see a HUGE gain in profits and revenues.

Let's see Micron or other RAM/Storage manufacturing compete in volume with Samsung over long periods of time so that Apple and ween themselves off of Samsung.
This is semantics on "tech-forward." I simply meant that use of personal tech has penetrated the South Korean population a lot.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Vjosullivan Avatar
Vjosullivan
95 months ago
and the supposed Apple Store for Singapore has been under construction for more than a year.
Much like the supposed HQ in CA.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
timborama Avatar
timborama
95 months ago
About 40-50% of Koreans use iPhones. You'd be surprised.
It is no where near that, I'd estimate 10-15% at best. Samsung is king there, 80%+, then the rest (LG, Huawei, Pantech, Apple, etc). But it is interesting to see EVERYONE with a phone, grannies talking on 6" phablets on the subway. Phones with retractable antennas with TV tuners for PnP viewing while playing WoW.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments

Popular Stories

iOS 18 Siri Integrated Feature

iOS 18 Rumored to Add These 10 New Features to Your iPhone

Wednesday April 24, 2024 2:05 pm PDT by
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
Read Full Article
Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
Read Full Article • 86 comments
maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Read Full Article • 280 comments
apple id account

Apple ID Accounts Logging Out Users and Requiring Password Reset

Saturday April 27, 2024 12:41 am PDT by
There are widespread reports of Apple users being locked out of their Apple ID overnight for no apparent reason, requiring a password reset before they can log in again. Users say the sudden inexplicable Apple ID sign-out is occurring across multiple devices. When they attempt to sign in again they are locked out of their account and asked to reset their password in order to regain access. ...
Read Full Article • 308 comments
macbook pro purple february

Best Buy Introduces Record Low Prices on Apple's M3 MacBook Pro for Members

Thursday April 25, 2024 7:41 am PDT by
Best Buy is discounting a collection of M3 MacBook Pro computers today, this time focusing on the 14-inch version of the laptop. Every deal in this sale requires you to have a My Best Buy Plus or Total membership, although non-members can still get solid second-best prices on these MacBook Pro models. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a...
Read Full Article • 44 comments
macos sonoma feature purple green

Apple's Regular Mac Base RAM Boosts Ended When Tim Cook Took Over

Friday April 26, 2024 6:34 am PDT by
Apple used to regularly increase the base memory of its Macs up until 2011, the same year Tim Cook was appointed CEO, charts posted on Mastodon by David Schaub show. Earlier this year, Schaub generated two charts: One showing the base memory capacities of Apple's all-in-one Macs from 1984 onwards, and a second depicting Apple's consumer laptop base RAM from 1999 onwards. Both charts were...
Read Full Article • 399 comments