SKT to unveil smart home and IoT devices at CES 2015

By Yoon Sung-won

SK Telecom, the nation’s leading mobile carrier, said on Sunday that it will showcase new smart devices at the world’s largest consumer electronics fair this week.

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015, which is scheduled to be held between Jan. 6-9 in Las Vegas, the company said it will promote seven new products and services in audiovisual, wellness and education segments. It emphasized that it is looking to expand its presence in the Internet of Things (IoT) and the smart home industry.

“We seek success in new business areas, not only in our core business of the telecom industry,” said SK Telecom Convergence Business Division Vice President Park Chol-soon in a press release. “We expect to establish a bridgehead to the global market for the IoT segment by participating in this year’s CES event.”

SK Telecom spokeswoman Kang Hyun-sung added, “We have expanded the existing ‘smart appcessory’ business to ‘lifeware’ division this year to promote the smart home and IoT businesses as one of our new growth engines. Some new smart devices are already under development and we will roll out more of these products in the future.”

SK Telecom will unveil a wireless beam projector called “Smart Beam HD” at the show. It is the world’s first subminiature-class projector which is capable of producing high-definition images with up to 50 lumen laser-beam projection, the company said.

The telecom firm emphasized that it has co-developed Smart Beam HD with a local startup Cremotech. It said Cremotech was the one of the first-generation participants of its startup support project called “Bravo Restart” and now they are working together to open a new market overseas.

In the audio device segment, SK Telecom will display a smart wireless audio called “Linkage.” It supports high-quality sound sources and multiple device connection through a Wi-Fi network to establish a surround-sound effect, the company said.

In the wellness segment, the company will showcase an air pollution measuring device called “Air Cube.”

Its smart accessory for golfers named “Smart Marker” is designed to provide functions, including distance and gradient measurements and ball marking. It also displayed a smartphone case called “Solar Skin,” which allows users to recharge the handset tapping into the lighting sources such as solar energy or artificial interior lights.

In the education device segment, SK Telecom will exhibit education robots called “Albert” and “Atti” at the software coding education session called “Coding School” at the show. The company said the Coding School was arranged to help students improve problem-solving abilities and creativity amid globally rising popularity of software coding education for young students.

SK Telecom’s affiliate iRiver will establish a separate exhibition booth in the audio brands’ sector in the city and exhibit its mobile high fidelity audio brand “Astell & Kern” devices.