Before the smartphone market in South Korea started booming in 2007 there was skepticism about whether there is enough demand from Korean consumers for internet-capable smartphones, given that they can easily have internet access at PC Rooms located within a five-minute walk in any city.

After Samsung “Blackjack”’s great success in both of corporate and consumer smartphone markets and the abolition of the WIPI requirement, which will be active in April 2009, Korean mobile phone operators have been eager to expand their lineup of smartphones, especially including foreign handset makers such as RIM’s BlackBerry and Apple’s iPhone.

One of the most persuasive reasons why mobile phone operators are moving aggressively to boost the smartphone market is that they can increase their ARPU, average revenue per user, through increased mobile data sales. As voice ARPU continues to decline, mobile phone operators try to offset the loss in voice ARPU by increasing the volume of data traffic. For that reason, smartphone becomes recognized as a new growth engine in order for them to boost their ARPU in that it creates a new revenue segment, which is a corporate market and contributes to the growth in data sales.

Samsung Electronics Co. announced on January 21, 2009 that it has finished consolidating its six business units into a Digital Media and Communication division that focuses on consumer products such as cell phone and televisions, and a Device Solution division that handles displays and memory chips.

Samsung’s restructuring has been aimed to slim down its organization in terms of synergy-driven consolidation to effectively respond to the economic downturn. Samsung had intended to maximize its overall performance by nudging each business unit to compete with each other. As its major products need to converge, however, Samsung has been asked to strengthen its competitiveness through cooperation, not competition within its organization.

One of the expected benefits from the consolidated divisions is a strong possibility that the conflicts Samsung has often faced with major clients of LCD and semiconductors such as Sony and Nokia will be resolved, according to Samsung insider. Samsung is supplying LCD panels to Sony while it is in competition with Sony in the LCD TV market, which often causes confusion among its business units. But now, Samsung has two separate divisions based on components and finished goods that will be operated as if they are independent entities. It is believed that Samsung’s large scale restructuring wil help it cope with the conflicts and boost its businesses.

Global Mobile Vision 2008(GMV), the international event for mobile industry, is held from November 11 to 13 in Seoul, Korea. This event is including Wireless Broadband Convergence Forum 2008, Global Mobile Business Forum and Global Mobile Business Fair. This event focuses on Mobile convergnece, Mobile computing, Wireless Internet service, WiMax, Mobile devices, Mobile contents, Mobiel security, VoIP and Wireless broadband.

At the first day KT, Samsung, NTT DoCoMo, Motorola and T Mobile will provide keynote speech. Following the keynotes Global Mobile Service & Broadcasting (Track A) and Wibro (Track B) Session will be held. For more detail information, visit here.

According to Global Mobile Vision 2008 official web site,

This event has been designed to provide a value-added opportunity for global mobile industry business leaders to explore cooperation with Korean mobile companies. Leading Korean mobile network operators in addition to Korean mobile vendor experts will be on hand to appraise attendees on current mobile trends and how to capitalize on these opportunities.

The objectives of Global Mobile Vision 2008 are:

•To identify best practices for international mobile service deployment;
•To discover potential commercial opportunities presented by Korean mobile technology;
•To promote mutual cooperation and foster future partnerships with over 200 first-hand Korean mobile solution and system providers.

Global Mobile Vision 2008 will focus on the following areas;

•Mobile convergence, Mobile computing, Wireless Internet service, WiMax, Mobile devices, Mobile contents, Mobile security, VoIP, and Wireless broadband
•Global mobile operators, Mobile (wireless) network vendors, Innovative mobile H/W & S/W technologies