Once reaching up to 8000 mobile subscribers in one day in Korea, iPhone no doubt still maintains popularity since its late launch here in November 2009. Some of you may not be aware of that there was a round 1 of iPhone versus Androids, perhaps because the earlier attempts to put domestic android phones, such as Motorola ‘Motoroid’ and LGT ‘Android-1’, up against the iPhone in February this year had been somewhat futile.

However, since SKT’s launched its three (more competitive) Android phones in April, there has been a huge come back for Androids, expanding its smartphone market share by six fold up to 35.3% in Korea. In fact, Android phones have actually surpassed the market share of iPhone in Korea which had been reduced from 43.3% in the first quarter to 31.4%. This shift towards the favor of Androids had gradually began with SKT’s launch of Pantech’s ‘Sirius’ mid April, then Samsung’s ‘Galaxy A’, and in May with HTC’s ‘Desire’.

The Android phones still have several matters to settle in order to continue on its successful launch in Korea throughout the latter half of the year, such as the build-in memory for apps, OS upgrades, and payment issues for the Android Market.

…
Furthermore, the round 2 of Android vs. iPhone is getting hot with Samsung’s masterpiece ‘Galaxy S’ which held its launching event yesterday, on June 8thin Korea, on the exact same date as the launching of iPhone 4G in the United States.
With the immense upgraded iPhone 4G and Galaxy S launch going eye to eye in Korea, it certainly will not be too easy to determine which one will fully capture the taste of the Korean consumers.

Left: Steve Jobs with iPhone 4G        Right: Samsung’s Galaxy S

Galaxy S has been equipped with a 1 ㎓ processor and the 2.1 version of the Android OS. The data processing speed has been upgraded and it boasts its AMOLED (active matrix organic light-emitting diode) vivid picture display. It is also the thinnest smartphone in the market today with a thickness of 9.9㎜, and has a replaceable battery. No doubt, Galaxy S contains the technology and specifications that could definitely make it possibly one of the world’s best.

The new iPhone 4G, on the other hand, is about one quarter the thickness and approximately two times the picture quality of the iPhone 3GS. It also fully addressed the consumer complaints for the previous iPhone 3GS, by installing a 500-megapixel camera that can capture HD videos and make video calls. It also has many of the iPad features such as an ‘A4′ processor (CPU), 512MB memory, 16 or 32GB capacity, electronic book (eBook) services, and further added multitasking capabilities. These improvements have certainly captured the attention of consumers, and very likely to further the iPhone’s dominance of the global smartphone market.

Galaxy S will be in full release, soon available for Korean consumer around mid-June, while iPhone 4G is scheduled to release in Korea by July – a pleasant surprise as Korea had been 2 years late in getting the first iPhones into Korea. We will simply have to wait and see who will be the ultimate smartphone standing in Korea.

Out of thousands of game developers in Korea, it is currently difficult to profit in the domestic market due to the massive number of competitors.  Thus many of them are turning overseas. Recently, Joymax’s popular MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) Silkroad Online® has been a hit in Turkey. With over 20 million registered players worldwide, this WOW-like RPG game has now become a national game for the Turks.

SRO (Silkroad Online) is a 3D third person style action MMORPG game, set in the 7th century AD Silk Road between Europe and China. Featuring realistic cities that existed in ancient Silk Road to visit, SRO is highly relatable fantasy game for the Turks. With free-to-play service and non-repetitive yet addictive game play, SRO has attracted PC gamers globally. There are three notable factors behind SRO’s success overseas.

Joymax’s keen timing on releasing SRO to the global market has certainly been essential. Over the past seven years, the Eastern Europe and the Middle East have vastly expanded their internet market, increasing their internet usage up to 1400%. With this epic transformation, the internet based digital entertainment industry has been blooming. To capitalize on this factor, Joymax launched a global version of SRO. This led to a staggering success. Now SRO alone makes up 84% of sales for Joymax, 94% of which comes from the SRO global version.

SRO’s success in Eastern Europe is also largely due to Joymax’s unique marketing strategy. It is true that Joymax was not alone in the competition. Turkey for example, with a population consisting over 70 million people and having 28% of them being under 14, is any game distributor’s goldmine.  While other competitors were distributing games though licensing and creating localized servers, Joymax has distributed SRO through GDS (Global Direct Service). GDS simply is like a portal site such as Yahoo or Google, it lets anyone in the world to access the server in Korea to play the game. This not only increases net profit for Joymax but also reduces the risks in going overseas. The different approach by Joymax is what makes them stand out in global gaming industry.

But why Turkey? How did SRO capture millions of young minds in Eurasia? The answer is in SRO’s game style. Joymax wanted to create a game that is highly relatable both in Europe and Asia. Aside from formulating a realistic back-drop of ancient Silk Road, SRO includes traditional Turkish outfits for the game characters, game monsters based on ancient Egyptian figures and special events based on Islamic religious holidays. With this multicultural faceted game play, SRO creates a familiar yet mystical world for gamers in Europe and Asia. I mean who could resist but to play a fantasy game based on a history they know?

Although Joymax holds total of only 1.22% in online gaming market share of Korea, its global impact is jaw dropping. Today the traditional way of spending leisure time is becoming history in Turkey. With membership increasing by 6% and sales 30% every month, it is safe to say that SRO is one of the number one ways to spend spare time in Turkey for many. With the release of the Turkish version of SRO on November, 17th 2009 and many other upcoming language upgrades, Joymax plans to attract millions of more players globally. Joymax’s SRO is sign of success in the global gaming markets for Korea and there is certainly much more to look forward from Korea’s gaming industry.

Since the official release of the iPhone last year November 28th, with sole custody by KT, SKT and LGT has been very aware of the consequences Apple is going to bring to Korea’s telco industry. Reaching 100,000 in iPhone subscribers within the first month of its release(continued to 500,000 in 4 months), the iPhone has certainly been KT’s miracle drug who had only accumulated 20,000~30,000 for the past two years. However while KT has been quite laid back with its taste of victory, SKT(dominant in Korea with over 50% of mobile market shares) has been vigorously pursing strategies to stand up against the iPhone. LGT has its own strategies, but is happening to be lagging with a weak line up of new smartphones  just as KT is, without its bread winning iPhone.

KT
KT has been tasting the fruits of its, well, heavy “investment” for monopoly over the iPhone supply in Korea. However, recently they have also been facing a curb in number of smartphone models obtained from Samsung. It is no secret that Samsung has expressed its disregards towards the entry of iPhone into the Korea (of course we cannot simply draw an induction with these two parallels).
Moreover, though KT has been believed to be stepping ahead with release of other Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones in the market, it has only three smartphone line ups consisting of Nokia X6, LGE’s Android phone, Pantech.

LGT
LGT has not been so hot either. Though it has always ranked 3rd amongst the 3 telcos in Korea, its new ‘Integrative LGT’ project’s communication system has made it the incompatible to foreign manufactured smartphones. Like KT, its number of line ups has been limited to two, the Eclipse phone and Samsung’s Android phone.

SKT’s forthcoming smartphones are △ Samsung’s ‘Galaxy A’, ‘Galaxy S’ △ HTC’s ‘Designer’, ‘HD2′ △ Sony Ericsson’s ‘Xperia X10′ △ Motorola’s ‘droid’, ‘XT800W’ △ Pantech’s ‘Sirius’ △ Research In Motion’s (RIM)  ‘BlackBerry Bold 9700′ △ LG Electronics ‘SU950′, 10 species in total.

…

SKT
SKT on the other hand, has been on fire with its plans to release 10 kinds of new smartphone in the second quarter. This is astonishing compared to the 13 models it has released over the past 5 years. It is basing most its models on the Android OS, with it grand trophy phone, the Galaxy S (of which SKT has sole supply rights) releasing hopefully this June. Its high utility with acute telecommunication openness and portability, has given it high expectations to be most competitive against the iPhone in Korea. Its further announcement in April 14th to go all-out open WiFi is likely to bring an inevitable showdown with KT.

The arrival of iPhone has certainly made its waves in Korea’s telco market. However, there is certainly more yet to be seen of what will become of the three telcos – KT, LGT and SKT – of Korea.