Pantech Releases Vega IM-A650S Android Smartphone

Pantech, the Korean handset manufacturer, an important phone supplier for KDDI and AT&T, announced recently its second Android-based phone tagged Vega (IM-A650S). The new smartphone is said to be launched exclusively through Korea's no.1 mobile phone carrier SK Telecom. Vega is being advertised as the lightest Android phone, being 4g lighter than the Samsung Vibrant, that has 118g (including battery).

The Vega phone runs 2.1 Android (Eclair) version and is powered by a 1 Ghz Snapdragon processor. The smartphone comes with 3.7-inch AMOLED display, 500 MB internal memory, 8GB external memory, and is compatible with the flash and mobile payment system, T-Cash. Vega is available in four colors: White, Black, Pink and Gold-brown.

After suffering a few profit losses in the first quarter, as the rollout of Apple’s iPhone hit sales of its feature phones, the Korean manufacturer's profit margin improved to 7% in the second quarter. Park Byeong-Yeop, vice chairman of Pantech, said that the company plans to launch 16 smartphones next year, most of them running on the Android platform. Further, he revelead that Pantech is in talks with Microsoft to launch a Windows Phone 7, but a decision is yet to be made.

The Korean company aims to sell around 500K Vega smartphones in Korea, but it's also planning to launch the device overseas. An executive already confirmed that Pantech is in talks with AT&T and Verizon to launch the model in the United States, but apparently a rollout date hasn't been decided yet. It seems that Vega will need some modifications before it's actually announced in the US.

Pantech is the number 3 phone maker in Korea and is struggling to compete with much bigger companies such as Apple and Samsung. It looks like the Vega smartphone is the company's battlecry, in a fight which might seem uneven from the start: “It is a matter of our survival. We are determined to fight Apple head-on,” said Park Byeong-Yeop.