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The mobile phone industry in South Korea consists of the provision of domestic network infrastructure and the production of consumer mobile handsets.
| | This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards.(January 2025) |
The mobile phone industry in South Korea consists of the provision of domestic network infrastructure and the production of consumer mobile handsets.
In 1984, Korea Mobile Telecommunications Service, a subsidiary of Korea Telecom that was later renamed to SK Telecom, started its mobile communications service with a car phone. [1]
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In 2009, KT was the first network to introduce the iPhone to South Korea. [5] The origins of South Korea's domestic smartphone production industry can be traced back to Samsung's release of their first smartphone, a reaction to Apple's iPhone, which was well-received by the South Korean population.[ citation needed ]
Later, as the smartphone sector continued to grow, South Korea's LG Electronics also joined the competition. Unlike Apple and Samsung, LG's business strategy was to make more affordable devices rather than devices with higher specifications. Eventually, LG shifted to offering phones with a better camera and higher screen quality, which increased their cost of goods. The sales of their phones, however, did not improve. [6]
LG announced its decision to exit the smartphone market in April 2021 due to their continued net loss in this sector. Until now[ until when? ], Apple and Samsung have held the largest market shares, with LG trailing behind. Apple tried to capitalize on LG's exit of the smartphone market by advertising its products on LG's displays within markets[ clarification needed ]. [7] [8] Samsung also took this opportunity to offer existing LG customers competitive deals on new Samsung phones, such as running trade-in events for used LG smartphones.[ citation needed ] Competition between the two manufacturers in the South Korean market is still on-going.[ citation needed ]
Current South Korean producers of mobile phones include:
Former South Korean producers of mobile phones include:
Samsung and Apple have the largest market shares in Korea.[ citation needed ]
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There are three mobile phone service providers and they are currently deploying their 5G networks.
As of 2004 [update] the market shares of the three companies were believed to be[ weasel words ]: SK Telecom with 50 percent of the market, Korea Telecom with 30 percent and LG Telecom with 20 percent. [11]
The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) is the telecommunications authority.
The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) supports Qualcomm's research and development of CDMA and CDMA2000 technology.[ citation needed ]
Regarding the Korean mobile phone industry's overseas experiences, SK Telecom has helped the first mobile phone service companies in Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Cambodia, etc. In China, it helped China Unicom's CDMA implementation, both technically and financially.[ citation needed ]
