3 Posts about '2010/06'
New Mobile Operator in Korea :: 2010/06/15 17:14
Currently, there are three mobile operators in Korea, SK Telecom, KT and LG Telecom. A new mobile operator will launch their mobile service in July of next year. KMI (Korea Mobile Internet) submitted the application for providing their own service to the Korean Communications Commission on 11th June.
They announced to build up WiBro (Mobile WiMAX) network and provide VoIP service based on WiBro and mobile broadband service next year. In Korea, SK Telecom and KT are already providing WiBro service, but they only cover mobile broadband service, not voice (VoIP) service on WiBro network. Also, KMI said that they will focus on MVNO business, so customers can use cheaper mobile services rather than the existing providers' services.
The major shareholders of KMI includes Samsung Electronics and Samsung Electronics is expected to provide WiBro network equipments instead of invest in KMI directly. KMI mentioned that about twenty companies participated in the investment, but they did not disclose the list of the companies this time.
To be honest, I am not sure whether they can make a soft-landing in the Korean mobile market as a new service provider which has a starting capital of 410 bil won (around $0.35 bil). Above all, They need about $2 bil to build up the nationwide WiBro coverage. Also, in the Korean mobile market, the existing three mobile operators such as SK Telecom, KT and LG Telecom poured marketing expenses of around $8 bil into the market for 2009. It may be asked whether they can bear the attack of the other mobile operators in the saturated mobile market.
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New Digital Signage Service at Seoul Subway Stations :: 2010/06/10 10:30
Do you remember a mall scene of Minority Report? If you can’t remember it, watch the below video-clip.
I sometimes wonder whether it will be possible to witness similar situations near myself in ten or twenty years. By the way, I was very surprised by the fact that I have been already exposed to a lot of digital signage at mall, convenience store, theater and subway. After recognizing this, I researched the current market size of Korean digital signage. Although I am not sure it is exact forecast, according to many Korea’s media estimate, the size of the Korean digital signage market will be an estimated $100 mil this year. I expect that more various and interesting digital signage services will appear in a few years.
Today, I want to introduce a unique digital signage which is provided at subway stations of Seoul, Korea. The name of the digital signage is “Digital View’ and it is provided by Daum (a major Korean internet portal) and Finger Touch. Refer to the below picture.
People in Seoul can see this big device at every subway station. According to the service provider, they already installed 913 devices at 117 stations. This device has two touch-panel screens, 42” main screen and 17” supplementary screen. The main screen shows a lot of information, including Seoul subway map, real-time news and entertainment content. In addition, people can use VoIP service using the small touch-panel screen. The VoIP service is currently provided for free and it is expected that this service will be a paid-service later. I took some pictures of this new device and described the details of each picture.
The bottom area of the main screen shows the overall menu of the service. They provide Seoul subway map, real-time service such as news and weather, coupon which is available at nearby restaurants and shops, tour information and the information about the station.
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Also, you can check cinema information, schedules & results of sports games and stock market news.
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Many Changes led by iPhone :: 2010/06/04 17:13
Since KT launched iPhone in November of 2009, the Korean mobile market has experienced a lot of changes. Above all, when I am on my way to work everyday, I am able to witness many people who are doing something with their iPhone. As well as the rapid increase of iPhone users, iPhone has made many changes in an interesting Asian market.
According to TrendMonitor (http://www.trendmonitor.co.kr), the Korean consumers' interest about smartphone is drastically increasing in 2010. At their same consumer research which was surveyed in April of 2009, 37% of 1,000 prospective consumers had intentions to buy smartphones, but about 68% responded that they have strong intentions to buy smartphone at this year's same research. This result shows a tremendous change of Korean mobile handset market. Although smartphone users have steadily increased in the global market, only early adopters have chose smartphones in the Korean market. Most of people have used feature phones and Korean mobile operators have also pushed feature phones to their market and customers. However, the iPhone opened the impregnable fortress against smartphone. Since the last November, around 0.7 mil Korean people chose iPhone. As well as iPhone, other smartphones also got good grades. For instance, KT's strong competitor, SK Telecom attracted around 0.6 mil new subscribers with Samsung Omnia 2. According to KT's research institute, there would be 4.9mil smartphone subscribers - about 10% of total mobile subscribers - in the late this year. Also, 20% of total subscribers will use smartphones in 2011 and 33% in 2012.
Until 2009, Nespot, KT's Wi-Fi hotspot service, was a nuisance of KT. Since 2002 when KT launched this service, Nespot has barely survived. For several years, KT had been maintaining around 0.3 to 0.4 mil subscribers. I think that this service might be under a severe deficit operation for the last several years. However, since KT released iPhone, they repositioned the Wi-Fi hotspot service as a complementary network of mobile networks such as WCDMA. They provided free Wi-Fi services to iPhone users and utilized the strategy as a marketing communication tool. Also, KT announced that they will invest more money to build up Wi-Fi zones from currently 16,000 spots to 30,000 spots. As a result, their competitor, SK Telecom decided to build about 10,000 Wi-Fi zones named T-Zone and open this network freely to all people, including their competitors' customers as well as their own customers. In near future, Korean people might be able to use free public Wi-Fi service everywhere.
1. The rise of smartphone
2. Good fight of foreign manufacturers' handsets
The rise of smartphone made another change in the Korean market. This is that foreign handset manufacturers began fighting well against strong Korean manufacturers such as Samsung and LG. Until 2009, the Korean mobile handset market was dominated by pure Korean players, including Samsung, LG and Pantech. Motorola was only one foreign manufacturer has survived in the Korean market. However, iPhone gave other foreign players wonderful opportunities to go into the Korean market. As KT attacks SK Telecom with their exclusive iPhone, SK Telecom selected a strategy that they target smartphone-friendly consumers with a lot of types of smartphone. According to SKT's announcement about their smartphone lineup from April through June, they will launch ten smartphones and six of them will be supplied by foreign manufacturers, including HTC, Motorola, Sony-Ericsson and RIM. This change makes the existing rulers such as Samsung and LG get be nervous about the situation. I believe that the new tension in this saturated market will become a new starting point of new innovation and development.
SK Telecom's prospective smartphone lineup
3. New spotlight on Wi-Fi
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