|
Camera phones with 3 million pixels and satellite digital multimedia broadcast (DMB) phones may be chosen as the two most distinguishing products among the new products in the second half of this year in the local handset market.
Major domestic cell phone companies such as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Pantech Co. will have tight competitions with the release of 3 million pixel camera phones in the second half of this year. Considering that the 2 million pixel camera phones were first released in the market at the end of the last second quarter, the release period of 3 million is rather fast. The appearance of 3 million pixel camera phones will be quite threatening to normal digital cameras -- the pictures taken with the 1 million pixel camera phones were hard to be printed into a 3¡¿5 inch size due to its low resolution, but the pictures taken with the 3 million pixel camera phones can be easily printed on a 3¡¿5 inch sheet.
The 3 million pixel camera phones that LG Electronics released last Sunday have a MP3 file restoring function and film moving pictures up to 1.5 hours as well. Samsung Electronics and Pantech Co. also recently released 3 million pixel camera phones.
Around coming September, satellite DMB cell phones will be released for the first time. Satellite DMB enables users to watch television or listen to radio broadcast through their mobile phones. TU Media, an interrelated enterprise of SK Telecom, will provide related services in earnest from mid-September.
Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and SK Teletec are preparing to release satellite DMB phones. The cell phones will be at least W 200,000 more expensive than other camera phones since parts to receive broadcasts are added. Insufficient battery development batteries is predicted to be another obstacle in the popularization of satellite DMB phones, since the batteries will last no longer than two hours when watching a moving film with such cell phones.
Push to talk (PTT) phones that enables the users to talk with someone on the phone with the press of a button will appear in the end of this year. In other words, PTT phones combine walkie-talkie functions with mobile phones. After registering people on the phone, the user may be connected with the registered people with the press of a button without any waiting times and also may have a conversation with several people at the same time as if having a conference. Cell phone producing companies are preparing to release such phones around the end of this year, when mobile communication companies will start PTT service.
New products that have specific functions added to existing products will pour out to the market in the second half of this year. LG electronics and Pantech Co. are preparing to release 3D game phones that may be used as game packs by adding 3-demension game functions within the cell phones. By the second half of this year, Samsung Electronics will strengthen its voice capturing technology and release cell phones that can record up to one hour and LG Electronics will release cell phones that can recognize fingerprints for mobile banking users. Cell phone producing companies are planning on developing a variety of health related mobile phones such as diet phones that check the user¡¯s fat within the body and stress phones that mark the level of stress the user received.
(Kim Ki-hong, darma90@chosun.com )
|
