South Korean carriers to offer foreign mobile brands

Jul 1, 2008, 9:34 GMT

Seoul - In a departure from their dependence on domestic mobile phone brands like Samsung or LG, South Korean mobile carriers are preparing to launch non-Korean brands for smart-phones.

International vendors such as HTC, RIMM, Apple and Nokia will be able to sign up with local carriers to put their international bestsellers in the hands of South Koreans.

SK Telecom launches Tuesday a touch-screen Windows Mobile smart- phone from Taiwanese vendor HTC, while it is also considering launching its next version Touch Diamond smart-phone from HTC later this year.

'We expect the HTC smart-phone to be a 100,000-unit seller for this year,' said Chung Dae-Hyon, a senior manager at SK Telecom. 'And this is only a start. We may be ready to launch one international brand after another,' he added.

SK Telecom has also said that it is ready to launch the Blackberry smart-phone from Canada-based Research in Motion (RIMM) later this year if the ongoing talks bear fruit.

South Korea may not be in the list of countries getting Apple's iPhone 3G in its marketplace on July 18, but talk is under way between mobile carrier KTF and Apple to launch the iPhone 3G in South Korea.

Even top-notch vendor Nokia may make a comeback after it pulled out of South Korea in January 2003 after two years of sluggish sales in South Korea. Both SK Telecom and KTF have said they are in talks with Nokia to launch Nokia models of smart-phones.

This move is a departure from South Korea's dependence on Samsung or LG brands for most of the cell-phones sold in the country. Almost 14 million cell-phones were sold there between January and the end of June.