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No sooner had the world¡¯s second largest handset maker Motorola announced the release of an ultra-slim and ultra-light model in Korea to bolster its tiny market share here than it heard market leader Samsung Electronics announce that it will release a model with the same thickness and weight at the same time.
Samsung, which holds about a 50 percent share in the domestic market, made the move to block any inroads Motorola may have hoped to make.
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Motorola Korea announced Wednesday that it will release its worldwide hit, the ultra-slim RAZR phone in Korea next week. /Yonhap
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SK Telecom will release both companies¡¯ new models next week. They are 14.5 mm thick and weigh 98 g. The folder-type handsets are finally so light that users can carry them in their shirt pockets. With admirable restraint, KTF and LG Telecom have no plans to make similar products.
Motorola¡¯s new handset is called ¡°RAZR¡± - in a dyslexic allusion to its thinness - and is made of alloyed aluminum used for making aircraft. The model has sold over 1 million units in the U.S and Europe already.
Motorola Korea executive director Cho Joo-yeon said the company previously developed and sold products tailored only for Korea, but this was the first time her employer was trying to appeal to Korean customers with a product that is already successful in the global market. Motorola vice president Michael Tatelman said the company, which made the world¡¯s first folder-type handset StarTac, could see its popularity rekindle with the RAZR.
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Samsung Electronics announced Wednesday that it will launch an ultra-slim bluetooth mobile phone sporting various functions next week. /Yonhap
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Samsung Electronics¡¯ model has a multimedia function, in addition to a 1.3 megapixel camera and an MP3 player like the Motorola. Samsung official Shim Jae-bu said the Samsung model was a third-generation handset that allows users to watch movies, while the Motorola model, as a second-generation product, had functional limits. He said it was Samsung¡¯s strategy to include as many functions as possible while making the handset ever slimmer.
Motorola ruled the Korean handset market after Korea introduced cell phones in 1987. But since Samsung launched its ¡°Anycall¡± brand in October 1994, it trounced the U.S company and reduced it to a mere 5 percent market share in Korea.
(Park Chang-sin, heri@chosun.com )
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