The South Korean cellphone market is opening up. The Korean Communications Commission lifted a three-year old rule that required internet-enabled handsets used in the country to run on a homegrown mobile platform, making way for foreign device makers such as Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) to enter the market starting next April. The rule in which web-enabled phones had to include Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability (WIPI) was put in place to make it easier for local software developers and service providers to offer internet-based services, but ended up becoming a trade barrier for foreign handset makers, reports the WSJ.com. South Korean handset makers Samsung and LG (SEO: 066570) dominate local sales with a combined 90 percent share. The commission said that the while the rule had helped bring some efficiency to the local market, it had
Subscriber content
?
Subscriber content comes from Gigaom Research, bridging the gap between breaking news and long-tail research. Visit any of our reports to learn more and subscribe.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Comments have been disabled for this post