iPhone in Korea? :: 2009/07/09 17:54
Although KT is officially saying that the plan to release iPhone in Korea is not decided, several news agencies have reported that KT would release iPhone in August. Especially, iNews24 (a Korean IT specialized news agency) reported a detail plan of KT regarding releasing iPhone.
According to iNews24, KT will release iPhone 3G in August and iPhone 3GS in September or October. In addition, it mentioned that SK Telecom does not make a decision about releasing iPhone.
In Korea, many people say that they are waiting for iPhone. Will iPhone make a big success in Korea? I am also wondering it. In my personal perspective, mobile operators should not modify anything including hardware and software, when they launch it. However, I am not sure whether KT could decide it without any modification. Because, many independent business models of iPhone collide with Korean mobile operators. For example, if KT launch iPhone without any modification, they should give up several their independant business such as Dosirak (a similar service to iTunes.). Korean mobile operators usually hope to become multi players which provide network, various services and content. However, when they launch 'PURE' iPhone and iPhone become the major trends in Korea, the mobile operators might become "DUMP PIPE"s.
We can see the result soon. When mobile operators launch iPhone in Korea, I will make a post regarding this again.
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