SK Telecom Not Ready To Own Handsets Too

Back in June, I wrote up an article over at TheFeature, looking at SK Telecom's attempt to get around the customer "ownership" battle between the carriers and the handset makers by buying a handset maker of their very own. Well, it appears that deal has gone sour, and SK Telecom says that the "market situation" is "inappropriate" for them to own their own handset maker. Of course, considering the regulatory pressure SK Telecom is under, perhaps it's not so much the market situation, but the political situation. Derek Adds: Note that SK Telecom has owned a handset subsidiary, SK Teletech, for years. The regulators stipulated that a limited percentage of SKT's handsets could come from SKTT. One of the main advantages of owning/controlling the handset vendor is less price or brand related, but is actually responsiveness. Worldwide, carriers have found the big vendors unable or slow to customize handsets for their services, but when SKT offers innovative customer services, SKTT often provides the phone. This effect stimulates Samsung and LG to also provide similar phones. These days, ODMs and outsourced manufacturers provide a similar role: a competitive lever against the Nokias and Samsungs.

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