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.

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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.

Samsung and the world’s largest conglomerate GE (General Electrics) are joining hands in the field of smart grid, and beginning a “Pilot Project” in the premise of technology research and business development.

Smart grid has currently been drawing the focus of the world’s IT industries. It revolutionizes the electricity provider relations to its consumers into a two-way communication that makes the allocation and utilization of energy much more efficient. Smart grid can also incorporate the use of solar and wind energy into the electrical system, which further adds to its attractiveness in part of the green technology schema.

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Korea’s Accelerating Smart Grid Power Supply Outlook

Korea’s smart grid market has deemed very promising. The “2010 Global Smart Grid Forum” was successfully hosted in Seoul on January 20, where the President of the American Smart Grid Association, Guido Bartles ceaselessly spoke of the fast development of Korea’s smart grid industry, which has been much due to the readily competitive ICT and infra in Korea. He commented that “This is possible due to the strong infrastructure set by KEPCO (Korea Electric Power Corporation); the cooperative relations between the Korean government, industries, and universities; and Korea’s unparallel internet broadband speed.” Furthermore, the Korean government has been vigorously pushing for smart grid development as part of the 2008 Green Energy project.

However, though the current usage of smart grid in Korea had begun effectively since 2000, it had been mostly limited to higher voltage areas such as factories, buildings and apartments.

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Homeowner / Retail Customer Premise

With this joint collaboration between Samsung and GE, Korea’s smart grid market is expected to further infiltrate into lower voltage appliances such as air conditioners, lighting and television. “Smart home appliances” will be one of the focus projects in this joint collaboration, as Samsung is in charge of a substantial home appliance development division. Samsung and GE both expect a win-win situation with this deal, as GE has been seeking to expand its smart grid industry into Europe and other regions, and Samsung believes that this deal will help them improve their technical sophistication and also be helpful for their future advancement into the U.S. smart grid market. Furthermore, this deal has created a positive buzz for the smart grid related companies in Korea, who are growingly seeing the promising future of smart grid and Korea.

Since the Avatar blow, the 3D industry that had been making steady growth is now in full blow. It is undeniable that this 3D phenomenon is here to stay. Not only are movies shot in 3D, but 2D movies are being converted into 3D (even past blockbusters can make a 3D comeback), and furthermore 3D panel TVs are selling like hot cakes. Korea has definitely not been shy in this growing 3D market, and I am going to introduce two key players (one S/W and one H/W respectively) in this industry: 3D content conversion company Stereo Pictures Korea and later this week the Samsung Full HD 3D LCD TV.

Stereo Pictures Korea (SPK)

Currently at work on Warner Brothers “Cats& Dogs 2″ scheduled for worldwide release coming July, this 3D content conversion company from Korea stands competitive amongst other companies in Hollywood, such as In-three and Prime Focus.

SPK’s competitive edge is in their “superior quality, fair pricing and efficiency.” With their advanced “Dynamic 3D” software, they range around an average of $5 million for each movie conversion, and with a time efficiency of 7:3 compared to some other converting firms in the US, SPK sells and delivers.

Tsui Hark, a Hong Kong filmmaker, who had been particularly impressed by a 3D conversion portion of the movie “300,” personally made a visit to SPK a month ago, in plans to convert his upcoming movie into 3D. SPK has also talked with Paramount, Fox, MGM and is expecting to obtain at least 10 more orders this year.

SPK had further opened its LA branch in December 2007 for marketing and development, and has former Warner executives James R. Miller and Dan Romanelli as corresponding managing and senior partners.

SPK’s business has positive outlook. With the growing demand for 3D, filmmakers now see the advantages of 3D converting compared to shooting in 3D. Filming in 3D from inception showed limitations when filming extensive landscapes and projecting fully three dimensional pictures when CG and actual images are combined. With SPK’s Dynamic 3D technology, and 3D converting & retouching engineers, the contour, depth and volume are adjusted to bring the directors vision into live. SPK is currently on a hiring spree in plans to hire around 3000 more employees by this September to meet the growing demand of conversion orders.

Keep up with Koreaninsight for the next issue on the Samsung Full HD 3D LCD TV.