South Korean Director Creates a Film with The iPhone 4

One of South Korea's well known film directors, Park Chan-wook, has created a 30 minute fantasy film entitled "Paranmanjang," (Ups and Downs) using the iPhone 4.  It is receiving quite a bit of publicity, including a recent article in the Los Angeles Times.  Park first achieved fame in 2000 with his film "Joint Security Area."  The idea arose last fall just as he and his brother (and fellow director) Park Chan-kyong were set to begin filming a fantasy about a middle-aged fisherman who one day hauls a woman out of the water's depths. That's when South Korea's exclusive iPhone distributor offered to finance the $130,000 project if the pair agreed to use the device to make a theater-quality film.
This is an interesting story indeed.  On the one hand, it illustrates a certain Korean willingness to use and experiment with new communication technologies.  On the other hand it shows that, at least in certain niches, Korea may have its own strengths in the creation of media content.  The nation is frequently criticized for being relatively weak in content creation, while strong in manufacturing and hardware.

Apple gets more than 600,000 Orders for iPhone 4 and closes Pre-ordering

As reported in The New York Times, Apple was overwhelmed with pre-orders for the iPhone 4 and had to close pre-ordering and apologize to customers, asking them to try again when the phone was in stock.  What does this say about the emerging market for smart phones in Korea?
Although KT has already sold 700,000 or so of the iPhone 3Gs, they are impossible to find and there is a waiting list for them in the South Korean market.  It seems apparent that there would be an equally strong demand here for the iPhone 4, as soon as it becomes available.
The demand for these phones is not because most of their most valuable components (screen, camera, batter, main processing chip, memory chip, etc.) are made in Korea.   Instead, it is because Korean consumers have perhaps the world's highest expectations of their telecommunications services of any consumer group in the world.   Three decades ago, an average Korean had to wait over a year to have regular telephone service installed and there were no digital networks.  Today all of that has changed.  Korean consumers expect the very latest and very best technology and are quick to adopt it.   I say bring on the iPhone 4 and the Androids!