[THE INVESTOR] Apple’s latest iPhone 7 and 7 Plus phones have sold out in Korea after preorders started on Oct. 14, ahead of their official launch on Oct. 21 here.

Amid the unprecedented recall of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Note 7 globally, the new iPhones have been speculated to benefit most from the bigger-screen rival’s withdrawal from the market, including on Samsung’s home turf. 

According to the nation’s top three telecom carriers, their first batch of iPhone preorders sold out in just a few minutes on the first day it opened.

KT, the largest seller of iPhones in Korea, said the first batch of 50,000 online preorders were sold out in 15 minutes.

SK Telecom, the nation’s No. 1 telecom carrier, didn’t specify the number but said its preorders were also sold out in 20 minutes. Especially, the hot-selling “Jet Black” model sold out in two minutes, it said.

LG Uplus, the smallest carrier, said it sold 20,000 units of the new iPhones online in one minute.

In Korea, the retail prices for the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus start from 869,000 won (US$767) and 1.02 million won, respectively, for their basic 32GB models.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)