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Nokia released 5800 XpressMusic phone in Korea via Korea Telecom

Nov 8, 2009 20:09

Korea Telecom has released Nokia's second mobile phone in local market. The model is one of Nokia's successors, the XpressMusic 5800. IT was released to target Apple's iPhone, but I'm not too sure how it bodes for the international markets.

XpressMusic is the second mobile phone that Nokia has introduced to Korea, the first model being the 6210S which was oriented toward navigation, but this feature has been removed by local law. This occurence meant the 6210S was rollout as just a mobile phone without any specialty to appeal to local users more geared toward established local brands like Samsung, LG and Pantech.



The Nokia 6201S, released in April, 2009, has sold about 40,000 units to date, but its start was very slow, retailing only 5,000 units in the month of April. How did it come up to a figure of 40,000 all of a sudden? And without any marketing? Well, because some of typical features from Nokia's mobile appears to attract local users. Like the Symbian OS, Wi-Fi and DRM-free MP3 support.

Now that Nokia seems to understand the Korean market and what Koreans want from the company, the XpressMusic 5800 has all of the above features I've mentioned which are attractive to Koreans. It also has touchscreen control with a surround speaker. What I like from the 5800 is its 3.5mm earphone port, which is very difficult to find in local mobile phones.


Nokia has launched the phone in silver black and red black, two colors in Korea via KT, at a price of 550,000 won. However, I cannot find any comments regarding a music service related to the 5800. You should know that this XpressMusic phone was introduced with Comes With Music and this service is bundled with the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic handset where you can download as much music as you want for one year, for FREE. What is the marketing plan for this KT and Nokia?

I'm curious about this XpressMusic 5800 released at the moment from KT. Because the Apple iPhone is about to be launched in Korea by the end of November and the carrier is KT. Many Koreans have been waiting for the iPhone for years, including myself. I think many potential customers are now awaiting the iPhone's release rather than any other mobile phone at this moment. I assume the XpressMusic 5800 sales will be picking up from early next year after the iPhone is released and those potential customers move to another model. But, Samsung, LG and Pantech won't so readily allow non-Korean rivals to eat into their market share.



Let's see if No. 1 mobile brand Nokia can make a mark on the Korean phone market against top local mobile phone manufacturers, or if Nokia will sink in its recent market share movement by Samsung and LG in the international market.

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