Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Officially On Sale In South Korea, Backed By 1.3m Pre-orders

Samsung Electronics started the official sales of its Galaxy Note 10 series of smartphones on Thursday in South Korea.

The Galaxy Note 10 Plus and Galaxy Note 10 together gathered 1.3 million pre-orders before sales began, the company said. It is the highest amount of pre-orders ever for the Galaxy series in its home country.

Consumers at the end of their 2-year contracts, as well as a lack of available 5G smartphones, are thought to be why demand has been so high for the Galaxy Note 10 devices. 

The main competitor against the Galaxy Note 10 devices, LG's V60 ThinQ, is expected to be unveiled at the IFA tradeshow next month and will only go on sale in September at the earliest.

Only the 5G versions of the Galaxy Note 10 devices are currently being sold in South Korea, with the LTE-only devices not being available. 

See also: Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus vs Note 9 - Is it worth the upgrade?

On the same day, South Korea's incumbent telco SK Telecom also announced that it had secured 1 million 5G subscribers.

Runner-up KT, meanwhile, has secured 750,000 5G subscribers so far while third place LG Uplus -- which has not revealed its numbers -- is estimated to have up to 600,000 subscribers.

The South Korean tech giant is also set to launch the long-awaited Galaxy Fold in September. The company's mobile boss has previously said it would only launch the 5G version of the foldable device in South Korea, citing further growth in South Korean 5G subscription numbers as the motivator behind the decision.  

The Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Fold's success will be crucial for Samsung as its second quarter profit was halved from the year prior due to slower smartphone sales and a dramatic decline in memory semiconductor prices.

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