LG has unveilled the Optimus LTE II in Korea. Successor to the Optimus LTE and other Optimus variants, the handset claims to be the world's first smartphone to be released with 2GB of RAM, shortly before the Samsung Galaxy S III reaches Japan in its own RAM-boosted state.
Apple Korea has agreed to change the way it handles replacing defective iPads and iPods in the country, reports say. Until recently, people bringing in faulty hardware would typically get a refurbished device if a replacement was needed. Apple has been persuaded by South Korea's Fair Trade Commission, however, to follow local laws, and will now replace defective iPads and iPods with entirely new units for a period of up to one month after purchase.
This Friday marks another set of expansions for iPhone and iPad sales. The iPhone 4S is now available through another five regional US carriers, including Alaska Communications, Appalachian Wireless, GCL, Cellcom, and nTelos. The first regional carrier to get the iPhone was C Spire, which joined national options AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.
KT, Korea's largest wire-line operator and Internet services provider, has begun limiting web access to Samsung's Smart TVs. KT took the step a day after it warned Korean TV makers that it could not give Internet-enabled TVs a "free ride" over its network. The service provider wants compensation for the alleged heavy traffic the TVs create, claiming it slows down Internet service to its other customers.
As promised, Apple has launched special Lunar New Year online sales in a handful of countries. These are notably similar to the company's Black Friday deals in the US, which were modest in scope. At the Hong Kong Apple Store, for instance, Apple is offering about 8 percent off Wi-Fi iPads, or 6 to 7 percent off 3G models.
Samsung has decided to forego seeking an injunction against the iPhone 4S in South Korea, says local newspaper The Chosun Ilbo. The company reportedly debated "until the last moment" on whether to file, having already made such efforts in Australia, France, Italy, and Japan. The 4S went on sale in Korea on Friday.
Today's South Korean iPhone 4S launch was met with long lines, at least at KT's flagship store in downtown Seoul, says local news agency Yonhap. There a lineup is said to have formed before sunrise. SK Telecom is also putting iPhones on sale however, marking an end to KT's exclusivity. The first 100 people to pre-order with SK were treated to a midnight event where phones were activated and Korean hip-hop acts performed.
LG has introduced a new projector, the CF3DAT, that will be headed to customers in the company's home country of Korea. The projector features Cinema 3D technology, enabling users to view 3D content in HD resolution when wearing inexpensive polarized glasses rather than relying on more expensive active-shutter frames.
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt will be in Seoul this week to meet with executives from South Korea's leading telecom and personal electronics companies. According to a source at The Korean Times, Schmidt will announce a number of significant investments in Korea, including a possible local Internet Data Center. Until recently, Google has struggled to establish itself in the market against Korean search companies Naver and Daum.
The South Korean government has lifted a ban on iOS games, reports say. Although the App Store has been accessible in Korea for some time, games were kept out because of rules making it illegal to sell titles not approved by the country's Game Ratings Board. Some limits began falling away in July, though, paving the way toward today's decision.
The South Korean government has fined 10 LCD makers for allegedly fixing prices for display components. The list of companies includes all of the major players, including Samsung, LG Display and AU Optronics. Total fines have been set at 195 billion won (~$173 million USD), though Samsung faces the largest single fine of 97.2 billion won (~$86 million USD).
Apple has unveiled plans for an iOS 5 Tech Talk World Tour. Apple experts are scheduled to visit nine cities during the tour, including Berlin, London, Rome, Beijing, Seoul, São Paolo, New York City, Seattle, and Austin. Events will start in Berlin on November 2nd and end in Austin on January 23rd. Registration for January 13th's New York City event is already full.
Samsung is "looking into filing a motion in a Korean court to ban the sale of the iPhone 4S in Korea," according to Samsung mobile communications chief Shin Jong-kyun. The executive spoke to reporters in Hong Kong on Wednesday. "We haven't limited our legal actions to certain countries," Shin elaborates. "We intend to take legal action in as many countries as possible with all the patents we can use."
Samsung is still the main producer for Apple's next-generation mobile processor, the A6, claims an anonymous executive with a South Korea-based Apple supplier. "Apple has been in talks with Samsung over shipment of its A6 quad-core mobile processor (AP) chips to be used in the next iPhone. It appears that Apple clearly has concluded that Samsung remains a critical business partner," the person tells the Korea Times. Samsung is in fact said to be boosting output of A6 chips at a manufacturing plant in Austin, Texas.
Samsung is already preparing to ask for a ban on the iPhone 5 in South Korea, sources for the Korea Times claim. "Just after the arrival of the iPhone 5 here, Samsung plans to take Apple to court here for its violation of Samsung’s wireless technology related patents," a senior Samsung executive is quoted as saying, under promise of anonymity. "For as long as Apple does not drop mobile telecommunications functions, it would be impossible for it to sell its i-branded products without using our patents. We will stick to a strong stance against Apple during the lingering legal fights."
Samsung is reportedly building new partnerships with Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo and several other companies to develop chips that will be used in upcoming smartphones. According to a Nikkei report (sub. required), the South Korean company is attempting to decrease its dependence on components produced by competing chip maker Qualcomm.
Korean carrier KT has unveiled a smartphone concept that pairs a handset with a wide range of dock accessories. The system centers around the Spider, an 0.37-inch-thick Android handset that offers a dual-core 1.5GHz processor and a 4.5-inch display with 1280x800 display, along with 1GB of RAM and 32GB of integrated storage.
Samsung has announced that its Galaxy S II smartphone has sold more than two million units in the company's home market of Korea. The achievement was reached just 73 days since the device arrived on the market. In comparison, the original Galaxy S took 144 days to hit the same number.
Apple has made its first-ever legal payout in the controversy over iOS location tracking, according to Reuters. In May a court ordered Apple Korea to pay a local lawyer, Kim Hyung-suk, 1 million won ($946) in compensation for recording location information through his iPhone without consent. The firm Kim belongs to, Mirae Law, has only just confirmed that Apple completed the payment in June.
The South Korean government is reportedly placing pressure on local cellular carriers to lower their pricing structures. SK Telecom, the largest mobile provider in the country, is the first to respond to demands from regulators. The company will reduce its monthly charge by 1,000 won (~$0.92 USD) by September, bringing the average monthly fees down to approximately 11,000 won (~$10.21 USD), alongside other promotions and plan changes.
One of Apple's key Asian retail partners, Foxlink, is planning to double the number of Apple-exclusive stores it operates in the region. The chain currently has about 50 stores, but says it will expand to 100 locations by the end of the year. Existing outlets are spread throughout China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea.
Apple has posted a new version of Boot Camp, its software allowing Windows partitions to run on a Mac. The v3.2 update -- measuring just 638KB -- is a minor one, only resolving problems with Japanese and South Korean keyboards when operating on a 2011 iMac. The update is nevertheless available in over a dozen languages, and requires Windows 7.
Asian launches of the iPad 2 were met with long lines on Thursday, reports say. The most significant of these may be in Japan, which was first slated to get the tablet on March 25th, but had the introduction delayed because of the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit the north on March 11th. By the time Apple Japan's flagship Ginza store opened at 9AM on Thursday, the iPad 2 lineup was reportedly three blocks long.
The Korea Communications Commission is now probing for possible legal violations by Apple in regard to iOS 4, says Bloomberg. Concern revolves around the location history file recently made public at Where 2.0. The KCC has requested that Apple explain how often location data is collected and saved, and whether or not the public has a choice to save or delete it. The company is further being asked to say why the information is saved, and if it's being stored on Apple servers.
Apple will launch the iPad 2 in 13 more countries next week, according to COO Tim Cook. The executive made the statement during the company's fiscal Q2 results call, addressing the "mother of all backlogs" the tablet has been experiencing. More countries will get the device throughout the third quarter, says Cook.
UK carriers Orange and Vodafone have announced details of their subsidized iPad 2 plans. Beginning tomorrow, Vodafone is selling 16, 32 and 64GB tablets at prices of £199, £249 and £349 for existing subscribers. For new customers, a £30 premium is being imposed.
Apple has "clever things" planned in order to address the prepaid market for iPhones, says COO Tim Cook. The executive joined CFO Peter Oppenheimer and VP of Internet Services Eddy Cue in speaking with Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst with Bernstein Research. While the iPhone is in high demand, a new model can cost at least $600 off-contract. Apple doesn't want its products to be "just for the rich," according to Cook, and is "not ceding any market." He notes that the company has spent "huge energy" in China, said to be a "clasic prepaid market."
The iPhone has had an "extraordinary" reception in Asia, "on par with the US some cases," according to analysts Toni Sacconaghi and Sanford Bernstein of Bernstein Research. The pair point to recent IDC data in particular, which indicates that the iPhone now forms 12 percent of all Japanese cellphone sales, not just smartphones. Given momentum and plans to open 20 more Chinese Apple Stores in 2011, it's inevitable that the iPhone will come to more Asian carriers, Sacconaghi argues.
Over 2 million iPhones have now been sold in South Korea, local carrier KT has announced. Various versions of the phone have been available in the country for little over a year. The iPhone 4 launched in the country on September 10th, and the 1 million mark was achieved a little over 10 days later.
Korean director Park Chan-wook -- most famous for movies like Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance -- has debuted a film shot entirely on the iPhone 4, says the Wall Street Journal. Called Paranmanjang, or Ups and Downs in English, the 30-minute short tells the story of a man who catches a woman's body while fishing. Beyond the actual film, the scouting, auditions and making-of documentary were all shot with an iPhone 4, according to Park.
A South Korean family is suing Apple citing unfair repair policies, says the Korea Herald. In October the father of the family, Lee Chul-ho, asked Apple for approximately $251 in compensation after it refused to repair his daughter's iPhone 3G. Apple is said to have blocked a free warranty repair on the basis that the phone's water sensors were tripped; the family denies causing any water damage.
Apple has formally debuted the iPad in 10 additional countries. In eastern Asia, the tablet is now available in Taiwan and South Korea, joining the likes of China and Japan. The remaining launches are all European, and include Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and the Czech Republic.
A senior iPhone director at Apple, Farrel Farhoudi, has been summoned to appear in front of the South Korean parliament on October 21st, says Bloomberg. Farhoudi will be asked to explain the company's repair and replacement policies, which have engendered a number of complaints from Korean customers. When people go to get iPhones repaired, the complaints allege, Apple is primarily choosing to hand out refurbished phones, rather than grant refunds, new phones or actual repairs. A local iPhone warranty allows a choice of any of the four options if a fault happens within 14 days of purchase.
Two key Asian countries should get the iPhone 4 within a matter of days, accounts say. South Korea's KT has announced a September 10th release date; pre-orders have been ongoing since last month. The carrier is reported to have planned a launch for July 30th, but been hampered by government approval. The device did get certification, however, by early August.
South Korean companies are vowing to introduce other tablet offerings to combat the iPad, which could ship to the country very soon, writes Agence France-Presse. The country's top wireless carrier, SK Telecom, is hedging much of its bets on the Samsung Galaxy Tab, a 7-inch Android-based tablet. "We are aiming for a September release," says SK spokesman Kim Dae-Woong, though prices and a release date are as yet undecided. "We are also considering diverse tablet PCs at the moment."
The decision to drop South Korea from this week's list of iPhone 4 launches has generated some controversy in the country, says the Wall Street Journal. Apple CEO Steve Jobs actually announced the move on July 16th, saying that it would "take us a little longer to get government approval there." The current Korean iPhone carrier, KT, initially insisted that a July 30th launch was still on track; the company was later forced to admit that the phone would arrive "in the coming months."
South Korea's biggest cellular carrier, SK Telecom, is in talks with Apple to carry both the iPad and the iPhone, according to the former's CEO, Man-won Jung. When either device might arrive is uncertain. The Wall Street Journal quotes Jung as saying that SK is "worried," given "noises about problems" with the iPhone 4. The comment is likely a reference to reception problems experienced by a number of early adopters.
South Korea has reversed its import ban on Apple's iPad, according to the Wall Street Journal. The government's communications regulator decided to reverse its original decision, now allowing the tablets to be brought into the country for personal use.
Apple is taking hard action against games slipping into the Korean App Store, reports the Korea Herald. The Korean version of the storefront is affected by local censorship laws, which make it illegal for games to be sold without having first been vetted by the Game Rating Board. As a shortcut to meeting government requirements, Apple completely removed the Games category from the Korean App Store.
The launch of the iPhone in South Korea has so far proven a success, reports say. The number of pre-orders at carrier KT is believed to have to risen from 53,000 to approximately 65,000 by Saturday's release date, significant in a market where 400,000 smartphones were sold in the third quarter. At a special launch event in Seoul, hundreds of people are said to have lined up for as long as 26 hours in order to buy one of the country's first 1,000 iPhones.
Tomorrow's Korean iPhone launch may greatly affect the region's cellphone market, the Associated Press reports. Carrier KT says it has received some 53,000 advance orders, a number described as "phenomenal" by Prudential analyst Hwang Sung-jin. "The iPhone's release will definitely stiffen competition for local companies such as Samsung and LG," Sung-jin adds.
Carrier KT has exposed details of the South Korean iPhone launch, confirming reports that the product will be released locally on November 28th. Plans are set to cost 45,000 ($39), 65,000 ($56) or 95,000 won ($82) per month on contract. Phone prices vary accordingly; a 32GB 3GS is set at 396,000 won ($342) under a base plan, but only 132,000 won ($114) under the most expensive plan. The 16GB 3GS and the 8GB 3G have been made free in some combinations.
The path is now clear for South Korean iPhone sales, reports note. The Korea Communications Commission has granted Apple a license to run location-based services in the country, long a major obstacle to entering the market. Korean cellphones are subject to such restrictions in order to manage privacy violations; with the iPhone, concern is mainly said to have revolved around Google Maps, and the MobileMe service Find My iPhone.
Nintendo is planning to expand its Wii-based video distribution service to reach outside of Japan, according to a regional business publication. The suggested expansion (subscription required) would begin as soon as Nintendo's next fiscal year, and likely involve places such as North America and South Korea. Content is expected to parallel offerings in Japan, in the sense of providing inoffensive cartoons, educational programs and general entertainment. Also present may be ads, possibly including full-length infomercials.
Despite the announcement of a deal by local carrier KT, a South Korean iPhone is still being held up by government licensing issues, says the Korea Times. The Korea Communications Commission has put a hold on approving the device, as a result of the phone's location-based services. In general, any company providing location-based information to Korean customers must have a special license. Companies are often prodded to situate appropriate servers in the country, even though it is not a strict legal requirement.
The iPhone has finally been confirmed for a Korean introduction through the local carrier KT, according to Telecoms Korea. A separate company, SK Telecom, also claims to have been involved in talks with Apple. It remains unclear, however, if Apple plans to offer the smartphone through multiple carriers instead of establishing an exclusive deal.
Apple has agreed to a recall of first-generation iPod nanos in South Korea, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company was asked to perform the recall in a June 25th motion by the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards, as a result of a number of complaints about batteries overheating or even exploding. "Although the overheating problem doesn't affect the batteries that are being used now in iPod nanos," Apple says in a KATS statement, "concerned customers can get a replacement battery."
Having only recently introduced a regular version of the LCD to North America, LG is now shipping a 3D edition of the 47LH50 in South Korea. The 47-inch TV requires special glasses, but handles processing on its own when displaying supported 3D content. The set is also classified under the XCanvas brand in Korea.
Apple has little active interest in releasing a South Korean iPhone, claims a regional news site. Telecoms Korea cites KTF's VP of handset strategy, Won-Do Lee, who comments that while his carrier is in negotiations with Apple, progress appears to have stalled in part because of a lack of motivation on Apple's part. KTF has objections of its own though, Lee observes.
LG has released a new midrange cellphone, the LU1400. The phone's primary feature is its 2.8-inch LCD, which supports resolutions up to 800x480, and can rotate to a horizontal layout for tasks such as e-mail and instant messaging. Like a number of devices from South Korea the 1400 also supports the T-DMB standard, which provides mobile TV and it is better viewed in the widescreen ratio used by phones like the 1400.
