Sales of the iPhone, the iconic mobile device made by Apple Inc., broke the half-million mark in the four months since its South Korean market debut, KT Corp. said Thursday.

KT, which sells the iPhone here, said South Korea was one of the seven countries in the world where sales of the smartphone topped 500,000 units in less than a year.

The telecom operator, also the nation's second-largest mobile carrier, said it activates 4,000 new iPhones every day.

The iPhone went on sale in South Korea on Nov. 28, 2009, after the South Korean government, following months of reviewing, granted the Cupertino, California-based Apple final approval to use so-called location-based services, such as maps, in the smartphone.

Source: unwiredview