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Tough competition is building up as major mobile phone manufactures such as Samsung, LG, Pantech & Curitel and Cyberbank plan to hit the markets with models featuring advanced game systems. The industry expects the new game phones will draw as much attention as MP3 phones, the big thing of the first half of the year.
¡ßGame phones will come fast and furious in the second half -- Samsung is planning to complete the development of its new game phone by July and launch V450 and V4600 for SK Telecom and KTF, respectively. The new V450 resembles portable game systems with faster game speed and joystick type direction keys. It also comes with features like 176¡¿220 resolution 262,000 color LCD screen, 2.5 hour movie clip, 310,000 pixel camera, duo expansion slots for memory sticks and surround stereo.
Pantech & Curitel plans to launch its first model for SK Telecom during the third quarter and the second and possibly third model during the final quarter. Some of the models are expected to be supported with 3D graphics and sound. It has been stated that Cyberbank will introduce an upgraded game phone model of the smart phone POZ X301. The fact that smart phones are PC compatible is a big advantage for Cyberbank.
¡ßWill mobile games gain popularity? New game phones are mostly powered with faster processor speeds (six to seven times compared to existing models). Consequently the mobile game market is expected to develop big time. User will be able to enjoy PC level graphics with mobile phones. Experts say that the 130~250KB to 1M capacity expansion will enable the development of mobile games with Microsoft XBOX quality. Song Jae-joon of mobile game developer Gamevill said ¡°the right game phones will change the whole picture of mobile games.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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