8 Posts about 'iPhone'
- Many Changes led by iPhone (1) | 2010/06/04
- SKT-Samsung Vs. KT-LG | 2010/02/12
- iPhone is a driving force to increase the adoption rate of smartphone. | 2010/02/04
- KT's teaser advertising regarding iPhone is fake? | 2009/07/21
- iPhone in Korea? (1) | 2009/07/09
- Impacts of iPhone in Korea | 2008/12/11
- No More Mandatory WIPI on Handsets in Korea | 2008/12/11
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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SKT-Samsung Vs. KT-LG :: 2010/02/12 00:32
Today, LG Electronics announced that they will launch the first Android phone in late February through KT. Even though LG has the second position in the Korean mobile handset market, they had no Android phone in order to counterattack the other handset providers such as Apple, Samsung and Motorola. Their new Android handset is based on the European version 'LG GW620.' They customized this modem for Korean market.
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By the way, Samsung already announced that they will launch their Android phone in March through SK Telecom. LG's decision means that war for Korean Android market might begin between SKT-Samsung and KT-LG.
Anyway, I think 2010 will be an important turning point for spread of smartphone, including iPhone and many Android phones. I will frequently report the interim result of various smartphones.
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iPhone is a driving force to increase the adoption rate of smartphone. :: 2010/02/04 14:37
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iPhone became a hot trendy item for young Korean people. Since KT launched iPhone in the Korean market, around 300,000 people bought this hot item. iPhone is making many changes in using mobile services. For instance, people who bought iPhone subscribed the data price plan very naturally. Also, many people began using various data-based mobile services such as mobile twitter in every place, including street and subway.
Among many changes, I think the most important thing is that iPhone became a key driver to increase the adoption rate of smartphone in the Korea's market. As well as iPhone, Samsung also sold Omnia 2 to around 300,000 people. Also, SK Telecom officially releases the first Android smartphone on 5th Feb and announced to release around 10 smartphone this year.
Smartphone does not mean only the change of the handset feature. The increased adoption of smartphone will make the change of the usage pattern for mobile services. Before the launch of iPhone, usual Korean people were reluctant about subscribing the mobile data plan seperately and usual retail channels push the plan intetionally when selling handsets. This point was the biggest barrier that mobile data service market could grow. Currently, the change is starting in this advanced mobile market.
I will post the further changes which will be made by smartphone including iPhone and Android phone.
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KT's teaser advertising regarding iPhone is fake? :: 2009/07/21 00:29
On 20th July, a rumor was abroad about iPhone in Korean blogosphere. Two mysterious teaser advertising posters opened to the public through many blogs. The below posters!
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It was known that the above two advertising posters were leaked in advance. According to many blogs, KT would be supposed to post the left one on 29th July and the right one on 12th August. The posters consist of KT's new corporate logo (Alleh! KT), iPhone-style icon and iPhone image. Because of these aspects of the posters, the mysterious advertising posters spread all over Korean blogs about mobile services.
However, KT asserted that the posters were fake. They said that there is no decision about iPhone. Because the above posters are made with very simple logo and images, it is persuasive that the posters were produced by a person who is very interested in iPhone.
Anyway, although the posters are really fake, the fast spread-out of the posters proves that many Korean people are interested in iPhone.
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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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Impacts of iPhone in Korea :: 2008/12/11 23:11
Yesterday, the policy about mandatory WIPI on all handset in Korea was abolished. After the news, iPhone became a hot potato on Korean blogosphere. As soon as Korean Communication Commission announced that the changed policy will be applied from April 1st of 2009, KTF complained the time for the new policy. A representative of KTF mentioned that they can launch iPhone at present and complained that the time for the new policy is delayed to April of 2009. Many people showed interest in his comment. This proves that many people are interested in iPhone of Apple.
Can iPhone make a huge impact in Korea? I basically think that it is possible for iPhone to penetrate Korean market successfully. Based on my personal experience, iPhone is a definitely attractive device. (Even though iPhone is not launched officially in Korea, I had used it for a while. Because I am working at a mobile operator, I could do it.) First of all, I was surprised at the user-friendly UI. I think Windows Mobile of Microsoft can not compete with iPhone of Apple. Second, I was surprised that iPhone makes customers to use mobile data service naturally. All convenient services and applications of iPhone require data connection with 3G network or WiFi. According to Nielsen Research, 98% of iPhone users in US use mobile data connection. In addition, 43% of iPhone users pay a monthly fee of about $100. It is a marvelous result.
iPhone is making a myth after its launch. Already 3G iPhones of 6.9 mil are sold and 10,000 applications for iPhone were registered on iTune store for five months after its launch. In addition, the market share of iPhone OS already passed over the market shares of BlackBerry’s and Windows Mobile. I expect that iPhone can make a new growth engine for the stagnant Korean mobile market.
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No More Mandatory WIPI on Handsets in Korea :: 2008/12/11 01:54
Today, Korea Communications Commission which aims to manage broadcasting and communication in
The policy was applied on April. 1, 2005. The Korean government had two objectives with this policy.
First of all, they intended to make mobile applications to be developed efficiently. In early 2000, various wireless internet platforms such as BREW of Qualcomm and J2ME were used on handset in
Second, Korean mobile industry intended to spread its own mobile technology to the world. Even though
However, the implication of this technology exists no more. The global trends about wireless platform have been changed fast. Especially, as open operating systems such as iPhone OS and Google's Android expand their territories, the closed platform, WIPI is losing its power and prevent Korean mobile industry from developing.
Concerned with the changed policy, I think the change has both positive and negative impacts on Korean mobile industry.
Positive Impacts
1. Various foreign manufacturers including Apple, Nokia and Sony Ericsson can break into Korean market and customers will become free to choose their handsets. Up to now, Korean mobile handset market has been dominated by three Korean companies, Samsung, LG and Pantec. Even though Nokia has number 1 position in the world market, they can not run their business in
2. Mobile operators can their competitiveness through applying various open OS for their services. The penetration rate of smart phone in
Negative Impacts
1. Small Korean mobile companies might not thrive under tough competition environment. Up to now, they could focus on only WIPI and developed only one version of application. However, under the open environment, they should develop various versions for an application. For example, they should develop a version for iPhone and another version for Android. Several successful companies can make bigger success under this open competition environment. However, most of small companies would struggle to thrive.
Anyhow, the Korean mobile industry is trying to change steadily. I believe that the Korean mobile services and technologies will make great impacts on global mobile industries.
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