Consumers rush to buy Galaxy S4 in Korea

With reservations for purchase starting at 00:00 a.m. on Friday, the Galaxy S4, a new smartphone from Samsung Electronics, began selling as briskly as the “Galaxy S3,” which has thus far been the top selling smartphone model, from the first day.

SK Telecom said a limited volume of 10,000 units of the Galaxy S4 that it put on sale from 00:00 a.m. on Friday sold out in a matter of 50 minutes. Rivals KT and LG U+ also started receiving online reservations for subscription with the phone from the same hour, but did not impose the “first-come, first served” rule. KT and LG U+ said, “The final tallies have yet to be made, but the number of people who have reserved subscription seem to exceed that from the time when the Galaxy S3 was put on sale.”

The Galaxy S4 will be put on sale in earnest from next Friday in Korea, and will be priced at 899,000 won (803 U.S. dollars), which is 95,000 won (84 dollars) lower than its predecessor that was priced at 994,000 won (889 dollars).