Wednesday, 3 January 2007

Sony Ericsson to Enter South Korea Mobile Phone Market in 2007

Sony Ericsson has decided to enter the South Korean mobile phone market in 2007. "Sony Ericsson is in talks with Korean mobile carriers about installing the WiFi wireless Internet platform on its phones to be launched in Korea," said a spokesman for SK Telecom, Korea's mobile carrier by subscribers.

Sony Ericsson has plans to introduce high-end phones in Korea in the second half of 2007, when an advanced mobile technology known as high-speed downlink packet access, or HSDPA, is commercialised, as per sources.

The talks are yet at the preliminary stage and nothing concrete has been decided by SK Telecom on buying mobile phones from Sony Ericsson, the spokeman said.

This entry by Sony Ericsson will be a tough one in the Korean market as there is fierce competition by South Korean manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics. Samsung and LG are known to dominate the domestic handset market. In South Korea, around 40 million people out of a population of 48 million carry at least one mobile phone.