“South Korea said on Wednesday it would lift a rule that forces handsets sold domestically to use a locally developed mobile device platform, opening the market to more foreign cellphones,” Rhee So-eui reports for Reuters.
“South Korean regulators require all mobile phones sold in the country to include Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability (WIPI), which has prevented many foreign makers, including iPhone maker Apple Inc., [from] selling their products to Korean carriers,” So-eui reports.
“The Korea Communication Commission said in a statement that adopting WIPI would no longer be mandatory from April 1, 2009,” So-eui reports.
Full article here.
As long as the regulators don’t yell “April Fools!” it looks like Apple will finally have a chance to launch iPhone in S. Korean next spring.
protectionism sucks big time.
Oh sure, after almost two years of Samsung and LG trying to get their so-called iPhone copies ready. Plus, Korea is a place where many consider you not patriotic if you don’t buy Korea made products. I doubt Korea will make much of an impact with sales this late in the game.
I was under the impression that South Korea only uses the type of phone system that Verizon uses. Doesn’t that mean that the iPhone won’t work in Korea anyway?
@Right… “Korea is a place where many consider you not patriotic if you don’t buy Korea made products”
Hmmm, sounds like the US, doesn’t it?
It IS patriotic to buy domestically produced product. Any time you make a conscious effort to benefit your country or countrymen, even at a sacrifice to yourself, that is patriotic.
Buying a product at a higher price for altruistic reasons is one of the seven signs of chronic stupidity.
Questioning my statements is another.
I would suggest it would be more patriotic for some American companies to make the investments and sacrifices years ago to be more competitive with the world market (or even the U.S. market) instead of looking for loans from the Government (because no banks in their right mind would loan them money). Blindly buying American despite it being the lesser choice can indirectly hurt the company in the long run.
But what does this have to do with Apple…? ;^)
@ Rudge
You are correct. S. Korea and some carriers in the USA, the largest being Verizon, use CDMA. Also supposedly some minor carriers in Japan. Most of the world, AT&T;, and the iPhone use GSM. CDMA and GSM are incompatible.
CDMA vs. GSM has always made me doubt the truth of the story that Apple offered the iPhone to Verizon first. If VZ had taken them up on it, it would have made selling the iPhone to the rest of the world that much harder – they would have had to had two versions, and that doesn’t sound like the Apple way of doing things.
Koreans are very brand conscious. The iPhone will never get a huge share of the Korean market because they’re pretty chauvinistic in their purchasing habits, but the cool factor could land Apple a modest market share. It’s good to get a foothold there to tweak Samsung and LG in their home market, but I don’t honestly expect that Korea will ever be a huge component of Apple’s worldwide sales.
My Toyota was made in California.
My wife’s Honda was made in Ohio
My Apple Macintosh and iPod were made in China
Which purchases were more patriotic?
@qka
Correct, Toyota and other companies make products here. The Americans are not union, adds cost, and they are placed in areas where the cost is lower. So it benefits our country and the fact that they make much more profit on the cars than the big US companies. The greater cash per car / truck allows greater RD with better materials and design- benefits us all. Except the unions and the people on the union payroll.
Buy what is best and all the other products will have to answer to the highest standard. Like Apple and Microsoft.
Good statement qka!
If S. Korea has done this, it’s to make more money. They allow BMWs and Toyotas to be sold domestically with a whopping tariff slapped on them of something like 100% of the retail price.
They’ll do the same with the iPhone. I guarantee it.
@Rudge
Yes and no. All South Korean networks used CDMA for its 2G network but the two main and dominant providers, SKT and KTF, use WCDMA (UMTS) for its 3G network. LG Telecom, however, uses the 3G version used by Verizon. So if the iPhone is released in Korea, it would only work on SKT and KTF.
Also, there’s no proof to say that Koreans “only” buy Korean-made goods. The perception that Koreans only buy Korean-made goods was/is due to protectionism which has effectively prevented Koreans from readily buying foreign made goods.
@Comment from: qka
@ Rudge
Er, Correct on CDMA & EV/DO in South Korea…
However, KDDI is no minor carrier in Japan! WRONG! They are #2 & the fastest growing! I believe Toyota still holds a stake in KDDI.. Duh!
Also China Telecom uses CDMA (they have a CDMA450 network & just were awarded the Unicom CDMA 850 network w/ the breakup of Unicom…
CDMA did not spread due to European industrial policy to block it in much of the world… that’s what a number of the bribes & payoffs to foreign officals that Siemens Telecom Div got in trouble for…
BTW – It is EASY to build a dual mode 3G phone that will work anywhere in the world. Qualcomm has made dual mode chips for quite awhile… The Blackberry Storm is dual mode and can function on 3G CDMA as well as European 3G (ala AT&T;) Leave it to the Europeans to come up w/a technology that requires 3x the spectrum for equivalent data speeds… Doh!
@daniel
Er, ALL the networks deployed 3G EV/DO in South Korea in the 850MHz band… It is the most pervasive 3G technology there…