The Hub of Sparkle!

Phones.

I was astounded to see two foreign headsets being hocked on the streets of Seoul in the last couple of days. The first is the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 [Korean website]. SE’s flagship smartphone runs a localised version of Windows Mobile 6.1 under a heavily customised SPB Mobile Shell that offers “panels” for accessing various functions and rich media. SE has partnered with SK Telecom and Daum to offer content and went as far as to offer a free 4GB Micro SD card with Spiderman 3 on it, and to have users names engraved on the back of the thing a la the iPod.

Typical crap Korean Marketing pose

As a user of a WinMo 6.1 touch screen device I can agree with the short comings in boot speed and program launching that have already been mentioned in the first reviews of the phone. The Korea Times notes that SE has been taken to task by some of the more hardcore users here in Korea over this, but especially for a redundant (extra) “;” button on the Xperia’s slide out keyboard.

TelecomsKorea points out the redundant “;”

In a country that relies a lot on keeping (and saving) face Sony Ericsson Korea has so far not done well – bullshitting it’s way through the fracas saying user testing demanded an extra “;” but then turning around and offering a replacement for dissatisfied users.

SE is being panned for not being ready for it’s entry into the Korean market. An accusation that holds some validity given they don’t even have a spokesperson so far and talk of replacements have come through their PR agency – the people probably responsible for the horrible website linked to above. Seriously if you are going to sell a WinMo 6.1 phone don’t tout it as being some rich media God’s send. WinMo sucks for video and music (mostly). I, and the link to the review above, both conclude that this is an excellent business phone. But that’s about it.

Oh and at W820000 for the phone (about W600000 with 12 month contract) the K-Times notes reception has been timid.

Elsewhere KTF has come out with the Nokia 6210s Navigator phone which has awesome GPS and mapping software, 3G, all the bells and whistles etc and could replace many a navigation unit in cars and taxis across the South of The Peninsula.

That is if it in fact contained Korean maps.

Great if you are going to Europe, but Korean law prohibits mapping data to be held offshore and thus, as the K-Times notes, reception has been timid.

Yeah good one KTF! That doesn’t bode well for an iPhone release any time soon.KTF would have been better served by doing what SK Telecom is trying to do with the Xperia – i.e. media, movies and music, by releasing something like the N95 which would have gone down pretty well along side the likes of the T*Omina

The 6210s in KTF regalia.

Fresh from rumour land it seems Apple is having issues dealing with it’s two Korean suitors (go figure) KTF and SK Telecom. From the Korean Phone companies’ points of view there is now a rising concern about introducing the iPhone in Korea anyway – now that it is coming up to a year old elsewhere on the planet. However that might not be such a problem with rumours of new hardware for the iPhone supposedly coming out sometime in June at Apple’s WWDC event.

The Bimbo’s take on this somewhat anaemic introduction of long awaited introductions of foreign handsets here on the peninsula is just that. Buyers should definitely hold on 3-6 months when there is more of a choice. At present the two offerings from the two larger telecoms firms are niche and bring the total number of foreigners to 4. (SK Telecom offers HTC Diamond touch and the Blackberry Bold to corporate customers.) Until such time as Nokia and Sony Ericsson combined start to rival smaller players such as SKY and Cyon The Bimbo will be sticking with his Samsung Mirage.

(Notwithstanding an impulse iPhone buy which I’ll probably regret.)

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