By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
There is no love lost among Korea's three mobile telephony carriers ― SK Telecom, KT and LG Telecom ― as they continue to claw and punch their way into messy market battles.
So when these bitterest of enemies say they will play together to create a massive, open marketplace for mobile applications, one they claim will be seamless and resourceful for consumers like Apple's App Store, it's hard to suppress skepticism.
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the country's converged regulator for broadcasting and telecommunications, which is getting serious about its role as referee, is considering new ways to have carriers avoid shedding too much blood in marketing competitions.
One idea is to prevent the carriers from spending more than 20 percent of their revenue on promotional expenses, although the ceiling will be set at 22 percent for this year to boost their efforts to sell more smartphones.
The other solution is to have the companies work together to operate an integrated online content platform, intended to allow smartphone users access to a greater wealth of applications regardless of the carrier they are signed to.
Handset vendors Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, which each run their own online applications store, will also be offered a chance to join in the planned-alliance between mobile carriers, the KCC said.
Getting these companies to verbally agree on the concept took a serious effort just in itself ― the idea was announced after three hours of talks between KCC Chairman Choi See-joong and the chief executives of the three wireless carriers, a meeting which KCC officials say had several moments of heated debate.
``To start the efforts to create a Korean, integrated app store, the mobile carriers will each form task forces and plan to agree on the needed process by the end of April,'' Shin Yong-sup, head of KCC's policy bureau, said.
``It will be hard for a single carrier to compete with the `super' dinosaurs of Apple and Google in terms of app stores. The companies must look at the big picture and consider ways to create synergy by working better together.''
Currently, the country's mobile carriers combine to provide 4 to 5 million applications they operate separately.
Loose Coalition
Online applications stores are considered critical for success in the emerging market for smartphones, which work more like handheld computers than conventional phones. These content platforms allow consumers the breadth of software, including anything from office utilities to games, to take full advantage of their multifunctional devices, and also open new opportunities for developers.
The massive success of Apple's App Store for its iPhone and iPod Touch devices has been prompting technology companies around the world to follow suit, and the Korean mobile operators are no exception.
SK Telecom, the biggest wireless operator, operates its ``T-Store'' applications platform, while runner-up carrier, KT, which is the local provider of the iPhone, runs ``Show App Store.'' Samsung Electronics, the world's second-largest handset vendor behind Nokia, also operates ``Samsung Apps.''
It remains to be seen whether the Korean wireless carriers, as sworn enemies, will be capable of delivering on the ambitions of a united app store. Technology won't be much of a problem, experts say, as the companies could easily establish an integrated content market based on open platforms such as Linux or the Google-backed Android operating system.
But whether these odd bedfellows will manage to agree on anything is anybody's guess. It's obvious that there will be arguments between the three over which company gets to have the leading role in establishing the integrated applications store, and the KCC will be in no position to suggest who gets to contribute how much.
KT and SK Telecom are also involved in efforts for the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), which is an alliance between 24 global carriers to create an open applications marketplace, and setting the connection between the upcoming WAC platform and the integrated Korean app store could be awkward.
Even should the wireless carriers manage to get the integrated applications store on track, it's hard to imagine it being operated as efficiently and flawlessly as the those provided by a single company, particularly Apple.
``The KCC is expecting a roadmap by April, but things could take longer. Each carrier has been investing heavily to differentiate their content ecosystems and their developer platforms have also been different, so there will be a lot of things to be taken care of,'' said a mobile industry source.
``There could also be criticism that the KCC is wielding too much influence in the business plans of the carriers.''
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr
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