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SK Telecom lures more customers than rivals in Nov. (South Korea)

  • December 2nd, 2008
  • 6:03 am

South Korea’s leading wireless carrier, gained more customers than its rivals in November, maintaining its lead in the country’s telecom market, according to data released by mobile carriers.

SK Telecom reported that it attracted a net 51,768 customers last month, with its total subscription base increasing to 22.97 million.

KTF Co. ranked second, drawing in a net 35,175 users, bringing its customer base to 14.32 million. The smallest company, LG Telecom Ltd., attracted an additional 22,726 customers, with its total number of customers reaching 8.18 million.

Based on the figures, South Korea had 45.47 million mobile service users out of a population of 49 million as of the end of last month.

Users of KTF’s 3G service, a third-generation wireless service that allows faster data transfers compared to second-generation CDMA-based services, reached 7.97 million as of the end of last month, followed by SK Telecom’s 3G service with 7.88 million subscribers, according to reports.

For more information please visit www.sktelecom.com

About Wireless Federation

Wireless Federation is an industry research conglomerate headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The mandate of the Wireless Federation is to provide its members and customers industry knowledge that can further enhance their understanding of the wireless industry. Wireless Federation conducts bespoke research and produces boxed reports in collabaration with Industry Bodies, Telecom Operators for Issues that revolve around ARPU, CHURN and Loyalty.
They have been associated with more than 225 mobile operators globally to set their Pricing/ Tariff Strategies, Go-To-Market Strategies for Mobile Advertising, Mobile Payments, Cutting VAS among others amongst 59 countries globally.

For more information please visit www.wirelessfederation.com

Samsung hits market share with over 17% in Q3 (South Korea)

  • November 4th, 2008
  • 6:40 am

Samsung Electronics gains in third quarter despite the global economic slow down. Samsung hits the largest-ever market share with over 17% of industry sales. The operating profits from cell phones augmented over 9% from July to September. Nokia, which leads the chart of top cell phone maker shows a drop of 2% points from the previous quarter, and Motorola saw operating losses of 27% and its market share slipped by a point from the previous quarter.
Its third quarter sales were up 15% from a year ago and 6% from the second quarter. However, ascending prices ate potential earnings lead to drop in profit to 44% from last year and 43% from the previous quarter.

SK Telecom gains more customers than rivals in Oct (South Korea)

  • November 3rd, 2008
  • 10:41 am

SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s leading mobile carrier, gained more customers than its rivals in October, maintaining its lead in the country’s saturated telecom market, according to data released by mobile carriers .

SK Telecom reported that it attracted a net 52,029 customers last month, with its total subscription base increasing to 22.93 million.

KTF ranked second, drawing in a net 35,543 users, bringing its customer base to 14.3 million. The smallest company, LG Telecom Ltd. , attracted an additional 23,497 customers, with its total number of customers reaching 8.16 million.

Based on the figures, South Korea had 45.39 million mobile service users out of a population of 49 million as of the end of last month.

Users of KTF’s 3G service, a third-generation wireless service that allows faster data transfers compared to second-generation CDMA-based services, reached 7.7 million as of the end of October, followed by SK Telecom’s 3G service, with 7.6 million subscribers, the reports said.

About Wireless Federation

Wireless Federation is an industry research conglomerate headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The mandate of the Wireless Federation is to provide its members and customers industry knowledge that can further enhance their understanding of the wireless industry. Wireless Federation conducts bespoke research and produces boxed reports in collabaration with Industry Bodies, Telecom Operators for Issues that revolve around ARPU, CHURN and Loyalty.
They have been associated with more than 225 mobile operators globally to set their Pricing/ Tariff Strategies, Go-To-Market Strategies for Mobile Advertising, Mobile Payments, Cutting VAS among others amongst 59 countries globally.

For more information you can log on to www.wirelessfederation.com

Microsoft & LG in a mobile collaboration deal (South Korea)

  • November 3rd, 2008
  • 10:23 am

Microsoft and LG Electronics have inked a preliminary agreement on strategic collaboration in mobile technology. “The agreement ensures continued strategic collaboration in R&D, marketing, applications, and services in the field of converged mobile devices,” LG said. While, LG’s home market rival Samsung Electronics have also launched the domestic version of the Omnia touch screen handset model, based on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system. Samsung said, the model will be available from mid-November under an exclusive deal with No. 1 mobile operator SK Telecom.

Microsoft is anticipating that its Windows Mobile operating system can continue to give competition to Symbian, a platform backed by the world’s top mobile phone maker Nokia and used in two-thirds of smartphones - mobile handsets with computer-like capabilities.
Research in Motion and Apple’s iPhone racing to threat Symbian, while several manufacturers are planning or have started to roll out smartphones based on Google’s Android software. Both LG and Samsung are members of the Symbian Foundation and are also developing models based on Android.

SK Telecom posts a fall of 58% in Q3′08 earnings (South Korea)

  • October 30th, 2008
  • 6:31 am

SK Telecom, South Korea, posts a fall Q3′08 earnings by 58% on increased marketing costs.
Net income earned 333.6 billion won (US$224.5 million) Q3′08, compared with 777 billion won in Q3′07.
Sales grew by 2.98% to 2.89 trillion won in Q3, while operating profit slipped by 6.06% to 504 billion won.

   

SK Telecom plans a share buy back worth $71.35Mn (South Korea)

  • October 24th, 2008
  • 7:06 am

SK Telecom , South Korea, plans to buy back and cancel its $71.35 million worth of its shares. SK Telecom said the buy back of the shares would take place in the market between Oct. 27 and Jan. 26.

   

LG’s Q3 mobile handset sales reach 10mln units in N America (South Korea)

  • October 21st, 2008
  • 7:38 am

LG in its third quarter had vend 10 million units of handsets in the North American market. The world’s fourth-largest mobile phone maker said the mobile phone sales was 9.1 million units in the second quarter. Its quarterly sales in the North American market grew for the fifth consecutive quarter. This year LG has stregthened its handset line in the U.S. market by introducing a new model named dare, a touch screen phone, to compete with Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

The firm discloses that more than 1 million units of the new model has been sold in the three month period. Regardless of increase in sales in the North American market, South Korea’s LG Electronics posted a decline of 93% in its net profit from a year ago due to the steep depreciation of the Korean currency against the greenback.

Samsung & LG shift their focus to Low-end phones (South Korea)

  • October 20th, 2008
  • 10:07 am

With the fall in sales of Premium phones in North America and European markets, both Samsung and LG are planning to make up for a fall by increasing their sales of low-end phones in the emerging markets.
According to Samsung’s spokesman, “Samsung will expand its low-end line-up in 2009, capitalizing on emerging markets, while increasing distribution channels in these regions through cost cuts. “Combined sales of Samsung’s SGH-E250 model, which has been selling for between $100 and $150 in Asian and African markets, recently crosses the mark of 10 million less than two years after the model was first introduced in December 2006.
LG Spokesman said, “It’s too early for us to immediately implement a`low-end phone strategy,’ because we need to increase global market share. But we are seeking better strategies for emerging markets. ”
Nokia having a strong distribution channel is increasing its spending on low-end phones amid slower-than-expected growth in the global mobile phone market.
Even No. 5 Sony-Ericsson has expanded its low-end line-up from the latter half of the year to face off falling phone demand in its traditional western European market.
According to a Samsung insider, the battle ground for industry leaders has shifted to emerging markets from traditionally-proven spots. Samsung and LG are advised to push low-end phones in emerging markets especially in China, India, Singapore and the Middle East. Further adds that his company will grab more chances in emerging markets over the short-term.

LG and Samsung are yet to announce their third quarter results.

Virgin Mobile announces prepaid international tariffs (USA)

  • October 17th, 2008
  • 5:48 am

Virgin Mobile USA announces new prepaid international tariffs to Latin America, Asia, and other markets across the globe.
The new tariffs allows the Virgin Mobile USA subscribers to make calls Brazil and parts of Mexico, Venezuela, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan for only 2cents/minute. Calls to Argentina, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Bangladesh, India, South Korea and Thailand will cost 5cents/minute.
The Virgin also offers international SMS tariffs priced at 2cents to send and 10 cents to receive a message in more than 170 countries worldwide.

   

Samsung plans to tap 15% mobile handset market (South Korea, India)

  • October 3rd, 2008
  • 6:46 am

Samsung Mobile country head Sunil Dutt said, the mobile phone unit of Samsung Electronics intends to double its share of the Indian GSM mobile phone market to 15% in the next 8-10 months. With the launch of an 8 mega pixel camera phone, Samsung Innov8, Samsung Mobile has extended its multimedia phone portfolio. Mr. Dutt further said that, “India has the second largest market for mobile subscribers after China and from the next billion mobile phone consumers globally, India is expected to contribute 250 mln. The market size for GSM and CDMA mobile phones in India is 100-110 mln in 2008 and will grow to 150 mln by 2010, with 50% coming from the replacement market. The company is planning to  enhance its mobile channel coverage from 55% to 85% of the market by 2008. It aims to tap rural markets through tie-ups with fertiliser cooperative IFFCO. It is also working on the expansion of its after-sales service channel by over 60%.