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November 10, 2009
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The SK Group has jumped back into the mobile phone industry with the announcement of the launch of its new mobile phone brand W by affiliate SK Telesys. The 3-inch, third-generation, full touch-screen phone will be sold exclusively through SK Telecom starting today. This is the first time in four years that the group is launching a mobile phone line. In 2005, the company sold its handset brand SKY Teletech to Pantech. With the launch of W, Korea now has five mobile phone brands in the market including W, Samsung Electronics’ Anycall, LG Electronics’ Cyon, Pantech’s Sky and KT-Tech’s Ever. SK said the W stands for “whenever,” “wherever” and “whatever,” emphasizing the phone’s connectivity and accessibility. The phone, priced at 600,000 won ($518) per unit, features social networking services in which popular blog and social networking sites such as Egloos and Cyworld can be accessed easily. Other multimedia features include video, photos and music services. “Through our new brand W .?.?. we intend to grow into a powerhouse IT product company,” said Yoon Min-seung, managing director of the new business division at SK Telesys. Many industry experts, however, believe the company faces some challenges with this product line, saying that it will be hard for the SK Group - which has little experience in handset development - to match the high technology standards of rivals like Samsung Electronics. “The W phone is not likely to make a huge impact on the handset market. Consumers are not going to think that W has a higher technological standard than a Samsung phone,” said Lee Yun-sang, an analyst with NH Investment and Securities. In a press conference this August, SK Telesys Chief Executive Officer Park Hag-joon addressed criticism concerning the technological standard of the phone. He said that the company has been conducting research and development on the phone for the past three years and that W’s launch is crucial to the company’s efforts to invest in new growth engines. He added that the monthly sales target for the phone brand is 30,000 units. By Cho Jae-eun [jainnie@joongang.co.kr] |
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