Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs said Saturday the company has postponed the plan to release its latest iPhone in South Korea this month, as the company has yet to secure government approval.
"It's going to take just a little bit longer to get government approval there," Jobs said at a press conference held at its U.S. headquarter on
Friday (local time).
South Korea was originally one of the 18 countries on the July release list for the iPhone 4, the most recent Apple smartphone model introduced in June.
The country was the only one dropped from the list, with the 17 others to see the release of the iPhone 4 before the end of this month.
Jobs did not elaborate on the reason for the delay or a new launch date in the country.
KT Corp., Apple's sole contractor for the iPhone in South Korea, said the iPhone 4 will arrive in the country, but failed to give an exact date.
"I believe you were confounded by the news that the iPhone 4 launch is delayed," Pyo Hyun-myung, president of KT mobile business group, wrote on his Twitter account on Saturday. "But it does not change (the fact) that the
iPhone 4 will be launched."
The previous version of the iPhone 4, named iPhone 3GS, was offered in the country at the end of 2009, nearly three years after Apple announced its first version of the iPhone in 2007. South Korea was one of the last Asian countries to see the computer-like hand-held device from Apple.
Since the domestic launch, KT sold 800,000 units of the iPhone in South Korea as of June.
Sales of the iPhone 4 have topped 3 million units since its launch on June 24, Jobs said.