iPhone 8 likely to hit S. Korea on Nov. 3: sources

Apple’s latest iPhone 8 series is expected to be released in South Korea on Nov. 3, with reservations starting at the end of the month, according to industry insiders Sunday.

Apple Korea is expected to open reservations for the new iPhone 8 via the country’s top three mobile carriers on Oct. 27, they added.

Korea will be among the iPhone’s third installment of international releases, following its global debut on Sept. 22.  

The new iPhone 8 is Apple’s first phone series to be equipped with the company’s latest processor, the A11 Bionic -- Apple’s first internally designed graphics processing unit, which the firm says is 30 percent faster than processors used in the previous iPhone 7 series.

However, according to industry analysts, the overall response toward the latest series has been lukewarm compared to its predecessors.

Jun Zhang, a Wall Street analyst at Rosenblatt Securities, said in a recent report that the number of iPhone 8 preorders in the US has fallen sharply compared to previous orders for the iPhone 6 and 7.

The price of the iPhone 8 starts at $699, while the listed price tag for the 8 Plus starts at $799. In Korea, the starting price of the new 8 series is expected to be roughly 1 million won ($873), including VAT.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)