iPhone 6s and 6s Plus pre-orders sell out in minutes in South Korea

Apple's new addition to its flagship iPhone lineup -- iPhone 6s and 6s Plus — seems to have created a stir in South Korea, the homeland of tech majors such as Samsung and LG. The pre-orders for the iPhone duos sold out in just half an hour.

The three major carrier networks in the country such as SK Telecom, KT - formerly known as Korean Telecom, and LG U+ opened pre-orders on 19 October, a few days ahead of the official rollout in the country scheduled on 23 October.

KT received some 10,000 orders for the new iPhone units within minutes of the carrier opening up pre-orders online. The carrier had to close applications just 10 minutes later, as some 50,000 units were reserved.

"We're getting an amazing response. We expected to take at least 30 minutes to sell the first 50,000. There was notably a huge demand for the rose gold," a KT official was quoted as telling Yonhap News.

Meanwhile, the online pre-orders through SK Telecom lasted a little longer - up to 30 minutes. While it did not provide details about the pre-orders, market watchers claim it to be about 50,000 units. Even LG U+ experienced the same kind of demand with pre-orders ending within five minutes of going live.

"Loyal customers who waited for new iPhones appear to have made quick move. Now we should see whether the demand will continue for the rest of the week," said a market analyst.

In an attempt to beat the iPhone sales, Samsung slashed the price of its flagship Galaxy device. The Galaxy S6 is currently being sold at ₩799,700 (£458), against the earlier price of ₩924,000 (£529). Samsung recently launched the Pink gold edition of Note 5 to compete with the iPhone 6s Rose gold model. Meanwhile, LG's new V10 costs ₩799,700, which is quite unusual as the flagship models are launched with the initial price tag of ₩800,000.