Bye Bye Brew In South Korea, Say Hello To WIPI
We’ve written about South Korea’s homegrown mobile application middleware, WIPI, a few times already. As of today, handset makers in South Korea are required to make sure their handsets work with WIPI, and they’ve mostly decided that, if they’re going to focus on WIPI they’re certainly not going to offer Qualcomm’s BREW as well. This isn’t a big surprise. KTF, who was one of Qualcomm’s showcase customers for BREW started phasing out BREW offerings last summer. And, after all the money Korean firms have sent to Qualcomm over the years, it’s not surprising that they’re looking for a technology that doesn’t involve shipping bags of cash to San Diego. Still, as expected as this was, it doesn’t help Qualcomm concerning its BREW plans. Many people are still wondering what Qualcomm really wants to do with BREW, and by losing South Korea, it certainly might influence Qualcomm’s eventual plans for the technology. Of course, until they make it clear what their BREW intentions are, it could serve to damper other carriers’ interest in the technology. No one wants to adopt a technology that might lose its support in the near future.
