1.24 Million Won Item Drops to 140,000 Won... Visiting the Holy Site After iPhone 16 Unveiling [Report]

"iPhone 15 for 140,000 KRW, Z Flip for 130,000 KRW"
Illegal subsidies added to sell already released models cheaply
"Galaxy S24 for 0 KRW"... Also inducing sales with the latest foldable phones

"Including the subsidies available at the store, the iPhone 15 can go down to 140,000 KRW, and the Z Flip 6 can go down to 130,000 KRW." (An official from a mobile phone store at Sindorim Technomart A)

On the morning of the 11th, I visited Sindorim Technomart, the 'holy ground' for mobile phones. Promotional signs such as 'Latest Models for Sale' and 'Foldable Phones for Sale' are displayed throughout the stores.
Photo by Seoyul Hwang chestnut@

On the morning of the 11th, I visited the 9th floor of Sindorim Technomart in Seoul. Throughout the store, promotional signs such as ‘iPhone 15 Sale,’ ‘Z Flip 6, Z Fold 6 Lowest Price,’ and ‘Latest Models for Sale’ were displayed, ready to welcome customers. The mobile phone stores here are known as ‘Seongji’ (holy ground) because they offer illegal subsidies, allowing customers to pay relatively less for devices. At Seongji stores, part of the sales incentives provided by the three major telecom carriers and phone manufacturers to the stores are converted into illegal subsidies.

On the 20th, when the iPhone 16 series is officially released, Seongji stores were seen adding illegal subsidies to sell previously released phone models. When I said, “I’m currently using SKT and want to switch to the iPhone 15 base model (128GB),” a store representative suggested, “If you port your number to LG Uplus, we can lower the device price to 160,000 KRW.” However, you must subscribe to a 105,000 KRW monthly plan for six months to get this price. Another store offered 180,000 KRW with a 95,000 KRW plan for six months. Both stores required subscribing to three additional value-added services. Without illegal subsidies, the maximum support available based on device price alone is when using a 109,000 KRW monthly plan, with KT offering the highest support among the three carriers: a public subsidy of 500,000 KRW plus an additional subsidy of 75,000 KRW, totaling 575,000 KRW. The retail price is 1,243,000 KRW.

On that day, the iPhone 15 device price dropped to around 140,000 KRW. A representative from store A showed me directly on a tablet how much the price could be lowered from the original price. They said they could reduce the device price to 140,000 KRW by adding about 700,000 KRW in store subsidies to the public subsidy. Again, the condition was to use the 105,000 KRW monthly plan for six months. He hinted, “If you want to buy very cheaply, purchasing an iPhone 13 or 14 is also an option.”

For the Galaxy S24, all stores said the device price could be reduced to ‘0 KRW’ under the same conditions as purchasing the iPhone 15. Recently, the three major carriers raised the public subsidy for the Galaxy S24 to between 500,000 and 530,000 KRW, leading some to speculate that this was in anticipation of the iPhone 16 launch.

At Seongji, they also encouraged purchases by saying that the recently released Galaxy foldable phones could be bought cheaply. When I inquired about the S24 price, a store representative instead recommended the Galaxy Z Flip 6. He said, “It seems the manufacturer is more eager to sell the Z Flip 6,” adding, “We can provide up to 850,000 KRW in store subsidies,” and “The device price is about 130,000 KRW.” He added, “Wouldn’t a device released two months earlier (Galaxy Z Flip 6) be better than the one released in January (Galaxy S24)?” The legal minimum device prices for the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 are 580,000 KRW (LG Uplus) and 910,000 KRW (KT and LG Uplus), respectively.