KT has announced that it will release Apple's iPhone 3GS smartphone in Korea on Saturday. Smartphones are cutting-edge mobile phones with advanced Internet functions. Last Sunday alone, the first day KT began taking online orders for the new iPhone, 15,000 people logged on their computers to buy the product.
In the two years since Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, more than 35 million units have been sold in 80 countries. The iPhone played a pivotal role in transforming the trend of the global mobile communications market from fixed-line to mobile Internet functions and from voice calls to data transfer and contents. The fact that it has taken so long for the iPhone to reach Korea demonstrates just how closed and outdated its communications market is. It has been some time since the global Internet environment shifted from fixed-line to mobile formats, but Korea remains trapped in a fixed-line system.
Korea developed and exports the WiBro mobile Internet technology, which enables Internet connections at speeds of more than 100 km/h. But that technology is not being put to good use in the country of origin because domestic telecoms have ignored WiBro due to fears of falling profits generated by voice call transmissions.
Korean phone makers are selling mobile phones overseas that allow free Internet service, but the same products sold in Korea have had those functions removed, so customers in Korea who surf the net on their cell phones must pay high prices by using networks controlled by telecom companies.
The mandatory requirement for domestic mobile phones to be equipped with a home-grown mobile Internet platform called "WIPI" (Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability) also inhibited the development of related technology, products and services. This also prevented foreign mobile Internet technology from entering Korea, which had its own set of specifications, while Korean technology, narrowed to WIPI standards, could not find a lot of interoperability with mobile phones sold overseas.
It was only in April that the government finally lifted the requirement. The fixation on market dominance among Korean telecoms and the backward mentality of government officials ended up turning Korea into an underdeveloped country when it comes to mobile Internet technology. This is why Samsung and LG electronics, which account for 30 percent of the global market for mobile phones, control only 4 percent of the global market for smartphones.
With the launch of the iPhone 3GS just around the corner, Korean telecoms are racing each other to come out with combined wired and wireless services and lowering fees. They are also rushing to launch their own smartphones. But as long as they remain fixated on market control, they could end up going the way of Kodak, which failed due to its inability to prepare for the digital camera age as it remained obsessed with the sweet profits rolling in from sales of photographic film.