14 DAY TRIAL // One of the most interesting pieces of news we were able to recently spot over the Web is that the largest mobile phone operator in South Korea, SK Telecom, might intend to soon enter the phone manufacturing business, at least this is what some sources from the country are reported to have said lately.
SK Telecom is stated to have launched an initiative that is called the “G Project,” and the cell phone carrier, together with its affiliate SK Telesys, is exploring the possibilities for it to start making mobile phones.
At the same time, it seems that the carrier is also taking into consideration the possibility that it could come to the market with new mobile operating systems, as well as with new user interfaces that would be able to compete against the already popular Google's Android platform or Apple's iPhone OS.
One other thing that was stated is that, in case the operator considers it cannot manufacture said devices, it might chose a phone maker like HTC to build it. Interestingly enough, SK Telecom used to own a subsidiary that was in the mobile phone making business, namely SK Teletech, yet the company chose to sell the division to Pantech about four years ago, in 2005.
For the time being, there is no official word from SK Telecom on the aforementioned rumors, and it’s possible that said move will actually never happen. Yet, since there are also chances that the company will enter the phone manufacturing business, it should be interesting to see if its devices will be able to compete against Windows Mobile smartphones, which account for the largest share of the market in the country, or against Android-powered handsets, which are also expected to make it to South Korea before the end of the ongoing year.