SK Telecom Co. began to ship pre-ordered iPhone 4 smartphones to its customers on Wednesday, creating a rare scene as South Korea's top mobile carrier lavishly promoted a foreign brand's handset.

   As SK Telecom belatedly joined the race to woo potential iPhone buyers and steal customers from its rival KT Corp., the iPhone is enjoying special treatment from the usually snooty mobile operator that other mobile phone makers rarely dream of. 

   One of SK Telecom's flagship retail shops in Myeongdong, a bustling shopping district in central Seoul, is decked out with billboards for the iPhone 4.

   Salespeople are clad in black shirts emblazoned with the Apple logo and "iPhone 4" in large print as they assist customers comparing the latest mobile devices made by a dozen different manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics Co.

   "With the large sign for the iPhone 4, this multimedia store will rise as a new attraction in Myeongdong," SK Telecom said in a statement.

   SK Telecom's gadget showroom now appears to be another iPhone store, standing side by side with Frisbee, a local Apple retailer.

   SK Telecom's iPhone sales end exclusive distribution rights for KT, the second-biggest mobile carrier and No. 1 fixed-line operator in the country, which has sold more than 2 million iPhones since November 2009.

   For the last two years, SK Telecom worked with mobile phone makers that built smartphones on Google Inc.'s Android platform, including Samsung Electronics and HTC Corp., trying to fend off its market share in the saturated and fiercely competitive wireless market in South Korea.

   At SK Telecom's Myeongdong showroom, the most prominent table near the entrance exclusively displays half a dozen iPhone 4 models, while a crowd of smartphone and tablet computers from Samsung, HTC, LG Electronics Inc., Pantech Co. and Research In Motion Ltd. share other tables.

   SK's first day of shipping the iPhone 4 failed to attract a big crowd to its store in Myeongdong. Apple released the model about one year ago and consumers are keen to see the U.S.-based company's next move with the future generation of the iPhone.

   SK Telecom declined to disclose the number of pre-orders. Sales at retail stores will start this weekend, it said.

   Before it introduced the iPhone, SK's top officials, including its previous chief executive officer, had said that Apple had to revise its after-sales policy.

   In the end, it was SK Telecom that backed down. The mobile operator will give buyers up to seven days to exchange new faulty iPhones for the same model, instead of one day. In response, KT revised its customer policy to give 14 days for exchanges.

(Yonhap News)

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