Apple Inc.’s most expensive smartphone, the iPhone X whose first batch of shipments to South Korea were only about half of the iPhone 8 series, sold out within minutes on the first day of pre-orders in the country, significantly faster than the predecessor.

SK Telecom Co., the country’s leading mobile carrier, said on Friday that the first batch of the iPhone X priced at 1.55 million won ($1,412) sold out in three minutes after it started taking pre-order online while the second batch in less than two minutes. It is significantly faster than the iPhone 7 series that sold out in 20 minutes in the first round and in one hour in the second round. The iPhone 8 series that began sales three weeks ago received tepid reception in Korea and stocks for its pre-orders lasted for a longer time.

Industry experts suspected that a short supply of the iPhone X has driven demand for the phone so high. According to SK Telecom, stocks allocated for the iPhone X for the first pre-order batch were less than half of the iPhone 8’s.

KT Corp., the country’s No. 2 mobile carrier, also said more than 20,000 units sold out in five minutes while the smaller rival LG Uplus Corp. also sold double the volume of the iPhone in 10 minutes.

The country’s three mobile carriers continued to receive pre-orders from consumers for the iPhone X but expected delays in delivery due to the short supply.

Apple is estimated to have allocated about 100,000 units of the iPhone X for the first batch of pre-orders in Korea, which is half of 200,000 units for the iPhone 8 series.

Despite the high price, consumers around the world have portrayed high expectation on the Apple’s new premium device as it comes with high-technology features. The iPhone X has an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display and a facial recognition unlock system. Supply of the handset, however, has been short across the world and there have been reports of late arrivals due to shortages in supply of OLED and other technology issues.

The iPhone X will be officially launched in Korea on Nov. 24.

By Seo Dong-cheol and Lee Eun-joo

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]