The iPhone's Impact on Mobile Networks in Korea, the U.S. and Britain

Having spent the past year or more reading the laments of Korea's mobile service providers and others here about low levels of data usage, and knowing that this country probably has more unused 3G network capacity than any other nation in the world, it is interesting to read about the woes of AT&T in the U.S., and now O2, one of the leading mobile service providers in the United Kingdom.
As outlined in a PC World article, O2 in Britain has now joined AT&T in the United States in blaming the "excessive data demands" of the iPhone for crippling the network!   If in fact, the U.S. and British networks are not capable of handling the data load, then Korea, with its advanced and under-utilized networks should be in an enviable situation.   The PC World article does note that some reports suggest that the iPhone itself may be the cause of problems and complaints in major metropolitan areas like San Francisco and New York.
From a consumer standpoint, the best outcome will be to build robust, high speed data networks (WiBro comes to mind here) rather than laying the blame on consumers who happen to like using mobile broadband!

Korea's IT Growth Slows Since 2005

Citing a report by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, an article in the Joongang Daily notes that the growth of South Korea's IT Sector has slowed noticeably since 2005.  From 1989 until 2004 the sector grew at an annual average of 16.8 percent, but since 2005 the pace has fallen to the 4 to 7 percent range.  The report attributed the slowdown to three widening gaps.

1. Between software and hardware.  Between 2000 and 2008 the hardware industry recorded annual growth of 9.5 percent, while the software industry grew at an annual average of 7.5 percent.
2. Between finished goods and parts.  The report noted that domestic production of key parts in the IT industry remains weak.
3. Between large and smaller companies.  While the nation's 20 largest IT companies posted an 8.1 percent rise in average annual sales from 2000-2008, sales at smaller firms grew by just 4 percent annually.

Why the iPhone is Faster: Resistive versus Capacitive Touch Screens

Thanks to an informative article in the 전자신문 (etnews.co.kr) I now understand one major reason why I like my iPhone 3GS.   It is faster than my old Motorola Razr and even faster than other touch screen phones, like Samsung's T-Omnia.   There are two main types of touch screens used in today's mobile phones.  Resistive touch screens, used in most of Samsung's and LG's phones, depend upon the pressure of a finger, or a small stylus.   The capacitive touch screen used by the iPhone, on the other hand, uses the electro static field created by the human finger, allowing faster recognition than a resistive touch screen.  Capacitive touch screens also allow multi-touch functionality, such as using two fingers to enlarge the screen for better viewing of a map, picture or other document.
In a small computer or internet device like the iPhone, customers value speed. Speed matters, as I've touched on in earlier posts.  Now I know a bit about the technology underpinning this speed.   I'd only add that the capacitive touch screen also has a natural feel to it, in contrast to the more mechanical approach of the resistive touch screen, even with haptic effects added.

iPhone Sales in Korea: A followup

This morning The Korea Times carried a report that smartphone sales in Korea are expected to exceed 1 million.  That prediction probably needs to be at least doubled, especially since I've predicted in an earlier post that Apple iPhone sales alone will probably reach one to two million.  According to my recollection, in the period before the iPhone was introduced, well over one million Koreans purchased the iPod Touch, and it is a safe guess that the vast majority of these people will prefer the iPhone.

Fixed-mobile convergence and the Role of Wi-Fi in Korea

Now that the iPhone is available in the South Korean market, the media are beginning to discuss a number of issues.  One of the interesting ones is the role of Wi-Fi in the continuing convergence of digital media.   As noted in The Korea Times this morning, mobile carriers in Korea had considered Wi-Fi more as a threat than an opportunity, even blocking handset vendors from including the wireless broadband functions on their devices over worries about losing data traffic or voice minutes.  SK Telecom, in particular, has been criticized by users for years for forcing Korean handset vendors Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics to exclude Wi-Fi from phones offered to its subscribers.
Now, things seem to have changed and SK Telecom is considering new ways to incorporate Wi-Fi access into its service offerings.  I'll say things have changed!  They began changing nearly three years ago with introduction of the iPhone.  The significance of the iPhone is not as a "smart phone" but rather that it begins to utilize various applications made possible by mobile broadband.   Until the full build-out of WiBro and perhaps LTE networks in Korea, (and even after that) Wi-Fi plays a very important role in the mobile broadband picture and in so-called "fixed-mobile convergence."  KT seems to recognize that with the iPhone and the manner in which it is leveraging its NESPOT network to sell the iPhone in Korea.  Let's hope that SK Telecom and LG Telecom follow that lead.