NOKIA in Korea

I read an article which gives information about recent Mobile Phone business in South Korea. It says that NOKIA is meeting the opportunity to expand its market rate in Korea. Well, we all know that this Finnish brand is the number one competitor in mobile phone business in the world. According to the article, its market share percentage is even bigger than the sum of Samsung, Motorola and Sony-Ericsson. Then, what makes it so fresh news that NOKIA is expanding its market share in Korea?

In the past days, NOKIA wasn’t able to perform well in Korea. The mobiles service operators in Korea were somewhat hostile to other phone-making companies like NOKIA, which are not Korean companies. Also, the Korean government was definitely not familiar to companies from other nations. It had lots of regulations and barriers. However, the situation is getting changed. These days the Korean government is realizing the fact that they should open the mobile phone market to other nations’ companies to prevent monopoly by few companies in Korea, or to lessen the monopoly situation. In addition, the mobile service operators in Korea - KTF, SKT, and LGT – is trying to adapt the WCDMA system which is an universal platform, and NOKIA owns many core technologies there and can produce good phones at lower prices compared to other makers. Either way, it is an ongoing truth that NOKIA is getting more and more favorable view and treats from Korea.

It is definitely good news to NOKIA and other corporations in mobile phone business which are trying to enter the Korean market. However, there are some argues whether it is good or not to Korea itself. To customers who want to have different mobile phones other than they used to have will greet this situation. And to customers who want to have various selections of mobile phones will be pleased to have the opportunity to buy phones from other companies. It is good news to the customers. But, there is some aspect that is not good. Even though the world is getting more and more related to each other and globalization is not news anymore, it doesn’t mean that there should be no barriers in business. Very exclusive barriers are not good because the customers won’t get enough advantages. But also, very few barriers are not good because it won’t be able to protect domestic companies from the attack of other nations’ companies. Well, I guess the most important thing is to be moderate. Not so exclusive and not so familiar.

Reference : http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2008/03/129_20853.html


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