14 DAY TRIAL // Sony Ericssson, world's fourth-largest mobile phone manufacturer plans to enter the South Korean mobile phone market in 2007, area until now dominated by Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics with a market share of 45% and 25%. Motorola, the world's second-largest handset maker is the sole foreign vendor in Korea so far, with a market share of 10%. Around 40 million people in South Korea - out of a population of 48 million - own at least one mobile phone.
"Sony Ericsson is in talks with Korean mobile carriers about installing the WiFi wireless Internet platform on its phones to be launched in Korea," said a spokesman for SK Telecom Co. (017670.SE), Korea's leading mobile carrier by subscribers.
Although reportedly, SK Telecom has not yet decided whether to buy Sony Ericsson's mobile phones, Sony Ericsson, the manufacturer of Walkman-branded music phones is considering launching high-end mobile phones for Korean mobile networks, based on CDMA2000 and W-CDMA standards, in the second half of 2007.
Sony Ericsson is not the only phone manufacturer that is keen to expand on the Korean mobile phone market. World's first mobile phone company, Nokia also aims to re-enter the Korean CDMA phone market, after having withdrawn from it in 2003.
At the moment, Nokia's phones can't be easily found on sale in Korea and have never sold well on the local market, despite the establishment of a manufacturing facility and R&D center.
"We are willing to talk with all the mobile phone companies including Nokia and Sony Ericsson," said a manager of SK Telecom, hinting that it may sell 3G phones made by multinational vendors.