[NewsPoster]

South Korean preorders for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have surpassed 100,000, and are vastly outpacing last month's preorders for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, according to the Wall Street Journal. The country's three biggest carriers -- SK Telecom, KT Corp, and LG UPlus -- opened up preorders last Friday. KT says it received 10,000 preorders within a minute, and 50,000 after 30 minutes. UPlus, a first-time iPhone carrier, received 20,000 orders in 20 minutes. SK Telecom isn't giving out hard numbers, but says that its first and second batches of preorders are already booked and that it's now starting on a third.

The Note 4, by contrast, achieved just 30,000 preorders in September, despite being a generally well-liked device made by a Korean company. The 6 and 6 Plus are due to go on sale in South Korea on Friday. The devices are also launching in 22 other countries that day, such as Greece, Hungary, Mexico, the Ukraine, and Thailand.

Apple is trying to reach 115 countries by the end of the year in what should be its fastest iPhone rollout ever. To an extent, this is coming at the expense of primary markets like the US; there an iPhone 6 is shipping in seven to 10 days, but someone wanting a 6 Plus may have to wait as long as three to four weeks, unless they're lucky enough to find one at retail.

[ElectroTech]

Wow! One hundred thousand Samsung engineers buying the iPhone 6 and 6+ ? It takes that many to be able to copy Apple, I guess.

[aardman]

Samsung's phone must be really awful if even Korean homerism, which has no rivals in depth of devotion, is of little help.