A customer purchases the newly released iPhone 6 in a mobile phone shop in Moscow September 26, 2014. Official sales of Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus started at midnight on Friday across major cities in Russia, according to local media.
A customer purchases the newly released iPhone 6 in a mobile phone shop in Moscow September 26, 2014. Official sales of Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus started at midnight on Friday across major cities in Russia, according to local media. Reuters/Maxim Shemetov

Believe it or not, South Koreans enjoy the privilege of taking home the iPhone 6 without having to dig too deep inside their wallets, paying up only $92 per unit.

It seems ironic that right inside Samsung's home base, the hottest 2014 smartphone is up for grabs at more than half the price that most consumers worldwide are paying. Samsung, of course, makes the Galaxy S5 and the Galaxy Note 4 - considered as chief rivals of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus this year.

A report by CNET, sourced from The Korea Times, indicated that Apple's latest flagship, possibly the smaller 4.7-inch 16GB variant, sells in South Korea for as low as $92 and the priciest it can get remains in the affordable realm at $185 apiece.

But the party may not last too long as numerous reports were saying that multitudes of Koreans are rushing to snap up the iPhone 6 to the detriment of the country's current prides - the GS5 and the Note 4.

It turned out, CNET added on its report, that the iPhone 6 price levels - definitely tempting for anyone - were not sanctioned be Seoul. In other words, retailers and distributors outside of Apple's official selling circle are engaged in illegal practices just to clear as many iPhone 6 units and as quick as possible.

"Online stores and private dealers secretly began offering instant rebates exceeding the legal limit on the iPhone 6," said the same CNET report.

South Korea is imposing a cap on subsidies or rebates that smartphone sellers can dangle to buyers, supposedly to encourage a fair competition environment in the market. Legally, the iPhone 6 or any other flagship phones, can only go as low as $325 in the country.

Yet as mentioned above, many local iPhone 6 sellers are circumventing the law to push out tons of the handset real quick and make huge profits long term.

It should be noted that the discounted one-off payment for the device is laced with contract agreements, meaning that in the end Korean telcos and its distributing partners are making more money with the truckloads of iPhone 6 units that they would clear.

So the Korean regulators were reportedly prompted into immediate action.

Authorities have commenced inquiries and vowed to "impose fines and penalties to retailers and pursue criminal prosecution for accountable senior executives upon further investigation," The Korea Times report said.

And there is no need to swing by South Korea anytime soon since the iPhone 6 will soon bear solid price tags thanks to the nearing Black Friday and 2014 holiday shopping season that will surely generate floods of irresistible gadget deals.