10 sectors most influenced by Jobs

By Kim Da-ye

1. Consumers

Apple vitalized the domestic smartphone market, eventually giving consumers more choices for products and services.

And more importantly, the App Store that led to the creation of a myriad of apps would change the lifestyle of many iPhone users.

People now check the traffic situation on their smartphones in the morning before deciding what form of transport to take. They watch movies, play games, read the news or talk with friends using Kakao on the bus and subway.

Before lunch, they read reviews of nearby restaurants. While chatting with colleagues, they incessantly search the Web to respond to questions.

Some order groceries in advance to pick up on their way home. On the train home, they return to movies or games.

Consumers have had to make some compromises. Apple’s policy to exchange faulty iPhones with refurbished handsets, not brand-new ones, has frustrated choosy local consumers.

Complaints against the policy finally led Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) to persuade Apple to change its terms and conditions effective from mid-October, under which the firm will have to provide new phones when a device is found to be faulty within a month from purchase.

Apple was also involved in privacy issues and had a 3-million-won fine imposed by the Korea Communications Commission for collecting users’ location information between June 2010 and May this year without their consent. Tens of thousands filed a collective lawsuit against Apple for tracking their locations in July after a few were compensated.

2. Samsung Electronics

Judging by the patent war and fierce rivalry between Samsung Electronics and Apple, the former may come across as lower in the ecosystem the latter helped create.

In fact, market observers say that Samsung is one of the biggest winners.

Not only is it a major supplier of processors and memory chips, but it also gained a large share of the smartphone market by reacting in a timely manner against the iPhone.

“Samsung had never been the No. 1 mobile phone maker. Nokia had been. While Nokia failed to adapt to the new trend, Samsung was able to. It now has a large stake in the newly created market,” Jeong Ji-hoon, a future columnist and author of “Nearly a full history of IT” said.

Choi Ji-hwoo, an analyst at Daewoo Securities, agreed, saying, “Before the iPhone entered the market, Samsung had the Omnia smartphones, which weren’t really good. The competition against Apple pushed it to come up with the Galaxy S.”

Local media outlets forecast that Samsung may become the world’s largest smartphone maker after the company estimated on Oct. 7 that it sold some 28 million handsets in the third quarter.

3. LG Electronics

The world’s third largest mobile phone maker, LG Electronics, is endeavoring to recover from the grave mistake of not taking the smartphone business seriously.

LG relied too heavily on feature phones _ nicely designed basic mobiles phones _ while allying with Microsoft in choosing the relatively slow Windows as its smartphones’ operating system.

The result was dismal. LG recorded an operating loss of 422.16 billion won between January and September 2010.

LG Group Chairman Koo Bon-moo’s brother Koo Bon-joon replaced Vice Chairman Nam Yong, vowing to become stronger in the new area.

LG now has a highest number of patents for long-term evolution (LTE) technology _ some 1,400 worth 9 trillion won _ and is determined to make a comeback with its Optimus LTE as well as a 3D-display smartphone.

4. App makers

Jobs created the App Store, the sales and marketing platform that enabled developers to turn ideas into real-life applications.

Developers first obtain a license for $99 a year, create an app and have it reviewed and approved by Apple.

Seoul Bus Developer Yoo Ju-wan said that the filtering process helps the serious apps gain better recognition among consumers while the Android Market would publish anything.

Yoo added that the App Store refreshes the list of most popular apps frequently, continuously exposing different apps and effectively marketing them on behalf of developers.

Some of the most well-known Korean-developed apps include Kakao Talk, a mobile messenger program by Lee Jae-Beom and Awesome Note, a scheduler web by BRID.

The local media recently raised concerns that Apple’s new iOS 5 may ironically kill some of the apps made by small-scale developers in the process of adding more convenient features.

5. Suppliers

Apple receives a significant portion of parts from Korean companies although it relies very heavily on Taiwanese counterparts, most notably Hon Hai Precision Industry, whose subsidiary is Foxconn.

Korean suppliers include LG Innotek, a camera-module maker; LG Display, the Retina display producer; Silicon Works, a supplier of driver circuits and Amotech, a chip varistor maker.

6. KT

SK Telecom seemed unbeatable to KT as it has dominated slightly more than a half of the mobile telecommunications market as well as the lineup of premium phones.

Apple’s iPhone not only boosted KT’s sales, but also saw its stylish aura seep through KT’s brand image.

“By having the iPhone in its portfolio, KT could overcome the image of a second-class operator. Its whole brand value improved,” Jeong said.

In the meantime, Daewoo’s Choi pointed out that Apple did help KT, but KT’s renaissance wasn’t as dramatic as that of Japan’s SoftBank that resurrected itself as the solo iPhone carrier after being nearly forgotten.

7. Wi-Fi

Telecommunications firms installed Wi-Fi networks, but didn’t know the use of them until the iPhone opened the smartphone era here.

Wireless carriers are now aggressively expanding Wi-Fi hotspots as heavy data usage by smartphone users is burdening the 3G network.

KT touts that there are 87,007 KT-supported Wi-Fi zones in Korea as of Oct. 14.

8. iriver

Remember those Mickey Mouse-shaped MP3s in fancy colors including lavender and baby pink that women adored?

While consumers picked iPods globally, Koreans preferred irivers’ MP3 players that could play virtually all types of files. They also worked as a radio, a voice recorder and data storage unit.

In 2005, iriver made print advertisements, in which models eat apples with the “Sweeter One” slogan next to them.

That might have been a sign of the firm’s hubris.

The MP3 market shrunk due to the popularity of smartphones and multimedia players.

In that contracted market, Samsung Electronics enjoys a 35.2 percent market share, followed by Apple’s 25.1 percent and iriver’s 13.2 percent, according to Danawa’s consumer report for the first half of 2011.

9. Accessories maker

Hardly anyone carries around smartphones and tablet PCs naked. People buy their dear iPhones cases, protective films, extra batteries and even key boards.

KT forecast in early 2010 that the iPhone could create a 238.1-billion-won accessories market, citing that 70 percent of American users spent 130,000 won per person on accessories.

A large portion of the accessories, especially protective films and cases, are imported from Japan and the United States but Korean designers and manufacturers are catching up fast.

Korean designers Park Sang-woo and Park Jong-won created Mobile Tail, a dog tail-shaped silicon device that allows a mobile phone to be propped up on its edge. It won the best of the best in the 2010 reddot design awards, a renowned international design competition that also honored the BMW 5 Series vehicle, the Kia K5 and the iPhone 4.

10. The media

With the iTunes Store yet to open in Korea, Apple hasn’t influenced Korea’s media industry as much as in other countries.

But the media companies did find another platform to market their content.

Most major newspapers including The Korea Times have apps for the iPhone and iPad.