Starting from Thursday, the KCC will provide information on the prices of cell phones at home and abroad. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 10 (Korea Bizwire) — The lowest prices for the Galaxy S10 and iPhone XS in South Korea’s open market are the fifth most expensive among 17 major countries in the world.
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) announced on Thursday that the lowest prices for Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S10 (128GB) and Apple’s iPhone XS (64GB) were compared in 17 countries from April 15 to 17.
The prices of the Galaxy and iPhone were applied with standard exchange rates in the calculations. Open market sites with the highest market share were selected from 17 countries.
The highest prices for the Galaxy S10 in the open market were from the U.K. and Ireland at 1,183,551 won (US$1,005), followed by the U.S. at 1,078,904 won and Canada at 1,077,730 won.
South Korea was the fifth most expensive at 1,056,000 won.
Australia had the lowest price for the Galaxy S10 at 808,839 won, while Austria, Switzerland and Germany were also relatively cheap, with the phone priced at 953,262 won.
The lowest price for the iPhone XS in an open market in South Korea was 1.35 million won, the fifth highest after Britain and Ireland at 1,479,809 won and France at 1,472,214 won.
Japan had the lowest open market price of 1,046,113 won.
Starting from Thursday, the KCC will provide information on the prices of cell phones at home and abroad.
Information on prices of mobile phones including open market prices at home and abroad can be found in the website of the KCC.
However, the KCC explained that the information posted may differ from the information actually searched by users, as there are different prices depending on the timing of the search by sellers, as well as the specific model color and language, as well as variation in supply from country to country.
The KCC expected that it will be able to encourage the distribution in the open market of cell phones by providing price information that users can easily access.
D. M. Park (dmpark@koreabizwire.com)
