GSMA asks Samsung to push 'Joyn' app
By Kim Yoo-chul
GSMA Director General Anne Bouverot speaks during a news conference in Seoul, Thursday afternoon. / Courtesy of GSMA
GSMA, a global association of mobile industry players, said Thursday that it’s in talks with Samsung Electronics to develop high-speed devices supporting an LTE-Advanced wireless network, mobile commerce and communications technologies.
“The meeting with Samsung Electronics co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun was very good. In particular, we’ve discussed how to develop mobile technologies. We are very happy to work with Samsung,” said Anne Bouverot, GSMA director general, during a news conference in downtown Seoul.
“Samsung is the first to deploy NFC-enabled handsets and we are trying to think more about the future of mobile commerce with Samsung. Samsung is an innovative firm.”
NFC is a short-range wireless connectivity standard that uses magnetic field induction to enable communication between devices when they touch, or are brought within a few centimeters of each other.
She met with the Samsung CEO at the firm’s main office in southern Seoul, Wednesday. The meeting lasted for about 90 minutes, and was attended by GSMA Chief Strategy Officer Yang Hyun-mi.
Bouverot said the organization officially asked Samsung to release smartphones equipped with the GSMA-developed Joyn messaging application. Samsung declined to comment on whether it accepted the request.
The nation’s three carriers SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus formed an alliance to release the Joyn application in December. last year to better compete with Kakao Talk. But the penetration rate stalled due mainly to an unfriendly user interface, said officials from the carriers.
The director general stressed 700 megahertz (MHz) spectrum is ideal for next-generation mobile technology. “Countries in Asia including Japan, Australia allocated that spectrum as the main one for advanced mobile technology. Entire countries in South America plan to service such faster networks within that spectrum,” the GSMA head said.
The 700 MHz spectrum is currently vacant as the government reserved it after ending analog broadcasting services last year. Broadcasters insist that spectrum should be allocated for them to offer high-quality services, while carriers said the spectrum should be used for mobile gadgets to support explosive data usage.
Bouverot said she also met with chief executives at carriers and major content-handling companies such as Kakao Talk and NHN, the operator of Korea’s dominant portal of Naver, for closer collaboration in the post-PC era.
“Yes, we’ve invited Kakao Talk CEO to give a key note speech in next year’s Mobile World Congress exhibition in the Spanish city of Barcelona. Creating eco-system is crucial. Kakao Talk is one of the successful business models in today’s converged trend. It’s desirable to share experiences and talk,” she said.