Motorola and SK Telecom yesterday announced the launch of the first Android-powered smartphone for Korea, Motoroi. The phone will be also rolled out in the United States and other countries later this year, executives of the companies said.

Korean handset makers Samsung, LG and Pantech will follow suit in rolling out Android phones in Korea, hoping to challenge Apple`s iPhone.

The planned rollout of Android phones may help them gain ground in Korea, but a shortage of localized applications may be a stumbling block to the adoption of the devices here, market watchers said.

In particular, Motorola faces an uphill battle against Korean companies, which already dominate the local market and which plan to introduce an array of Android phones.

"The Motoroi is a different model from the Droid, (Motorola`s Android smartphone launched in the United States), and it will be launched in the United States around March," Bae Joon-dong, senior vice president of SK Telecom, said at a press conference.



"The product will be launched in other markets around the world," Rick Wolochatiuk, president and representative director of Motorola Korea, said.

Motorola, which has not had a hit model since the Razor phone, appears to be determined to revive its past glory with the launch of the Motoroi. The U.S. handset maker holds a less than 5 percent share in the Korean market.

"The outlook for Android handsets looks good. Consumers are expected to be keenly interested in Android phones. But I`m not sure whether they will be interested in Motorola`s Android phones," Greh Noh, an analyst at HMC Investment Securities, told The Korea Herald.

He said the smartphone market is expected to grow rapidly this year in Korea as the iPhone launch has ignited consumer interest in smartphones and prompted mobile carriers to drive sales of the computer-like devices.

The full touch-screen, 3.7-inch phone gives access to 18,000 Android applications, including "hundreds of Korean-language applications," Bae said.

"Android is the fastest growing in terms of new applications," Wolochatiuk said.

The new device offers an eight mega pixel camera with Xenon flash and a 720 pixel HD camcorder - the first of its kind for mobile phones in Korea. It also features a terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasting service, a popular service in Korea, eight gigabytes of external memory and can support up to 32 gigabytes of external memory.

SK Telecom, the top mobile carrier, bets heavily on Android-based phones in a bid to challenge Apple`s iPhone, which is sold exclusively by second-ranked KT. Bae said the carrier plans to launch 15 smartphones this year, of which 12 to 13 will be powered by the Android.

The company has seen a mass defection of its customers to KT because of the iPhone, news reports said.

"As you well know, the biggest topic for this year`s telecommunications market is Android phones. ... SK Telecom will vigorously support Android phones," Bae said.

He also stated that the Android realized more openness and diversity than any other operating system.

The Motoroi is priced at about 900,000 won ($800), but Bae indicated that SK plans to give heavy subsidies to the new phone as it does to Samsung`s Omnia 2, to spur their sales.

Market research firm ROA Group Korea expected Android to gain momentum in Korea this year, with a series of planned Android phone launches.

Android`s share is projected to rise from zero to 43 percent this year, overtaking Windows Mobile as the No. 1 mobile operating system in Korea, according to a forecast by ROA Group Korea released this month. The Windows Mobile expects to capture 37.6 percent of the market, followed by iPhone`s operating system with 16.1 percent, the prediction showed. Local smartphones sales are forecast to more than triple to 1.8 million units this year from 500,000 units, accounting for 7.7 percent of total handset sales this year. Last year, 500,000 units of smartphones were sold in Korea, making up a mere 2.1 percent of total phone sales in Korea.

(hjjin@heraldm.com)



By Jin Hyun-joo