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SK Telecom planning to launch HTC's Android phone "Hero" in Korea

Sep 20, 2009 19:31

Korea's No.1 mobile carrier, SK Telecom, is planning to launch an Android phone together with HTC next year. This will help both parties to secure their respective markets in different ways in Korea.

SK Telecoms has been getting a lot of pressure from local competitor KT since the iPhone release in Korea. Since KT is in the position to deal with Apple, SK Telecom faces the challenge of preventing its customers from hopping over to KT to purchase the iPhone. Thus, Android phones can be used to attract customers and maintain its market share from KT.

The problem is that the Android phone is not released in Korea from local mobile giants like Samsung and LG, which are already known by customers for their quality and services in overseas market.

Meanwhile, HTC Korea is having a difficult year after entering the Korean market with SK Telecom, one of its international partners. HTC Korea released Touch Dual and Touch Diamond in Korea, but those models sold below 10,000 units, which is very unusual in terms of sales volume compared with other markets. This may be due to Korean customers still not familiar with smartphones.

HTC Korea needs to refresh its image, and the launch of an Android phone can help since HTC is the company which released the first Android phone together with Google. And SK Telecom can have the latest Android phone from HTC with quality and services that have been recognized by various worldwide carriers. Unfortunately, I heard from the local media that the Android phone model will be HTC Hero, which won't be the latest model when it is released in the first quarter of 2010. Hopefully, HTC will unveil a newer model then.

It is very interesting to see that local carriers start to compete against each other, besides local brands such as Samsung and LG, since the latter have become top-class companies in the world. KT will push the Apple iPhone as its main flagship and market model, while SK Telecom will bank on the HTC Hero.



KT took about a year to get the Apple iPhone in, and during this process, the Korean Government made a few big decisions, which is a very unusual move from the authorities. However, KT is still not revealing when the iPhone will be released and whether it will be the 3G or 3GS.

I hope KT releases the Apple iPhone 3GS in October and SK Telecom launches the HTC Hero in late October, so customers can compare between the two mobiles and their OSes before migrating to this totally new type of mobile phone from those feature handsets that Koreans have been using.

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