Mobile in Korea

   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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   There are public buses which provide internet cafe using WiBro (Mobile WiMAX). KT started to provide ;WiBro Internet Cafe in Bus' service in Seoul. Several seats in a bus have devices equipped with touch-screen panel. Currently, it is free service for trial. People who want to enjoy internet or use a streaming music/video service are able to do those activities in a bus. Please refer to the below pictures for your understanding.

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   SK Telecom released a new mobile service which is the first mobile mash-up service in Korea. My Portal service enables users to make their own mobile homepages with various such as opened news articles of Google and their own blog postings. For example, most of contents on web are made based on XML language and support RSS function which makes contents to be provided on various devices and applications. When users make a mobile home page using My Portal service, they can gather various contents from Internet.

   I also made my mobile homepage using My Portal service. I could take my blog postings to the homepage using RSS function and post some news article of Naver (the most famous web portal in Korea) regarding mobile services. Because most of current web services provide provided Open API, people can make a mobile mash-up homepages using various contents from many web sites.

   In the initial stage, some famous idol stars made their own mobile homepages on My Portal service and are attracting their fans to the pages. In addition, some companies can make their own mobile homepages for promotion of their products and companies. The below image shows mobile homepage of a famous korean star.

   There are two methods for users to connect  to My Portal service with their mobile handsets. The first one is to push only '479 + send button'. Users can connect to the initial page of My Portal service and see well categorized list of mobile homepages, including famous stars' homepages and ordinary people's. The second methos is to push 'phone numbers + # + send button'. If users know someone's phone number and want to connect to his or her mobile homepages, they only push the phone numbers in order to connect to the homepages.

   SK Telecom started to promote the service through TV commercial. TV commercial emphasizes that users can make their own mobile homepages. If users want to use mobile internet service with their mobile handsets, they had to connect to the initial page which mobile operators provide. However, if users make their own mobile homepages using My Portal service, they can enjoy their own initial mobile services which include contents selected by each user. The below is the TV commercial for My Portal service.

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  Samsung launched a new 3G handset (HAPTIC) in late March. Although one month has passed, the handset is expected to become a best selling handset in Korea. About 70,000 handsets have sold for 20 days. Although it is a high-tier model (retail price : $700), more people want to buy the HAPTIC.

  The KSFs of HAPTIC are 'innovative UI design', 'convenient widget' and 'full-browsing function'. In Korea, the handset manufactures have focused on handset design and additional function like game in order to attract users. I assume that this trend is changing. Korean users are interested in innovative UI more than hadset design and fuctions. I think that, if iphone is launched in Korea, it can surely attract many korean users.

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