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[ end of April update on illegal import of iPad into South Korea ]
there exists an old folktale in Korea about the Tiger and Dried Persimmons . ever since in Korean folklore dried persimmons was the scarist thing to exist near the Penninsula .
then come post-Millennium in the still divided Korea, when the North is one of the last surviving terrorist regime and South rising into an I.T. powerhouse, Koreans, or at least the ruling electronics conglomerates AND holding government dreaded the landing of the iPhone, successfully helding off official import a good 2 years after its release in the States on June 2007 .
in a nation flooded with foreign conquest AND local dictators in modern times, patriotic sentiment goes a long way in persuading to buy everything Korean . but at the same time people urge to be different among a mono-color population whose livelyhood AND pasttimes tend to be much similar, grasping for the latest gadget the tech-nation has to offer .
so while SamSung was leading good on LG and a few minor competitors on the mobile cell phone arena, November 2009 seemed still quite safe for them when the iPhone finally landed on Korean shores .
one note to add here, that Koreans as a whole nearing the Millennium on Planet Earth was a civilization much comfortable with consumer technology than other nations of its time . meaning, to opt to transfer update files manually from their main computer to mobile machines such as PDA AND cell phones, rather than automatic ‘sync’ usually adopted in the Western World – which still IS in case with the iPhone, although wirelessly //
but behold, as ‘2010 – The Year We Make Contact’ jumped started and well into a late Spring in the Koreas, the few memory versions of iPhone dominated top ranking in sales charts . and it gets worst .. now iPad, the tablet – reader version of a conjexture of iPhone AND MacBook is on the horizon .
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it has been barely a month since iPad’s official release in the States earlier this April AND official import into South Korea seems indefinitive at best . but at the same time 24-hour internet-connected consumers of South Korea are enjoying overseas travel AND on-line shopping abroad . a noteable number of iPads are already in use and will increase substantially .
so what does the authorities do ?
make it down-right illegal, almost to the level of a terrorist attack . no I’m NOT kidding . this IS real . you WILL get arrested if you own an iPad bought from abroad . unless ..
- the prime excuse is siting Korea Cummunications Commission regulations (as it has delayed the earlier iPhone into South Korea for 2 years) on electromagnetic signal compliance .
- and you can tell this is NOT a legal sanction in the true sense because the rules of arrest is changing, almost as dictators grasped AND then let go regularly to test effect at their will .
- the initial regulation states that one can bring in ONE iPad when going out of the country .
- but swiftly changed to anyone importing one WITHOUT official clearing, hinting it had to be approved from the business sector .
- it had been on earlier news conglomorate executives were handed out iPads to figure counter-action .
- then the Minister of Culture, Sports AND Tourism decided to herald it on one of his news conference, soon after which criticism arose .
- and thus currently iPad is outlawed outside of business use only as of the end of April 2010 .
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but DON’T count on it, for this is a flimsly law AND will change, flaunder then come back in another form soon ..
hey this is just like the End of the last Century when military regimes took turns grasping and letting go on a regular basis on a Korea striving to get out of the hardships lingering from the Korean War -_-
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[ May 8th Update on iPad international Sales ]
iPad will be sold outside the States into 9 countries beginning May 28th onto :
Australia, Canada, France, Germany, italy, Japan, Spain, Swiss and UK with early orders beginning May 10th.
Millennium TechnoLand South Korea is NOT included this first round of international Sales and NOT even in the second round previewed for July 2010 expected to unleash iPads in :
Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore .
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– Korea Tech BLog, April 2010 –
I just got back from the States and had planned on bringing back a new laptop for me and an IPad to use in my classroom. Although the hype on the Apple website made it seem like the Ipad would be available within a month, and that there were demo models in stores now, this turned out not to be true.
I am from San Francisco, so I went directly to the flagship store at 1 Stockton Street and alas, no demo models and sales people said the earliest release date would be “sometime” in March. Given that it was already the middle of February and they had no demo models, I am guessing this “sometime” might stretch beyond March. Too bad
I have to be satisfied with a new MacBook Pro, which I am liking just fine.