KOREA: World Cup sparks mobile TV boom

Sales of handsets increase 50 percent in one month

Korea Times
Sunday, July 2, 2006

By Cho Jin-seo

The World Cup has helped mobile TV sets become ubiquitous in South Korea as sales of T-DMB handsets increased by 50 percent from the previous month, companies reported on Sunday.

According to three mobile service operators, sales of the T-DMB phones have rocketed to 127,000 units in June. In May, the three firms recorded sales of 84,000 units of the TV-on-the-go handsets.

Short for terrestrial digital media broadcasting, T-DMB transmits mid-quality video and audio signals to handheld devices such as cell phones or laptops even if the receivers are traveling at high speed. It debuted in South Korea for the first time in the world last December.

"Several factors have helped the sales to grow. The World Cup boom, and the launching of subway DMB service, and the introduction of new DMB-able handsets all helped," a KTF official said.

Among the three companies, KTF was the no.1 seller of T-DMB phones with 61,000 units. LG Telecom followed with 42,000 units, and SK Telecom sold 25,000 even though the company only had one DMB handset in its lineup.

Since it is free of charge, T-DMB has an edge over its sibling S-DMB, which uses a satellite network.

The number of free mobile broadcast users topped the 1 million mark as of June 15, seven months after the debut. The Special Committee for Korean Terrestrial DMB reported that about 320,000 units had been sold up until then, while other gadgets such as car navigation terminals, laptops and PMP (portable multimedia players) amounted to about 680,000 units.

According to the committee, daily sales of DMB gadgets reached almost 10,000 during the World Cup period. It also predicted that the number of users would double to 2 million by the end of this year.

PMP makers are also eager to utilize the World Cup fever. Digital Cube, the largest PMP maker in South Korea, released its first T-DMB model last week. Other makers such as Cowon and Viliv are also introducing DMB-equipped products this month, and LG Electronics launched a MP3 player that shows DMB on its tiny 2.4-inch screen in May.

As well as convergence gadgets, there are DMB-only receivers in the market. Reigncom, the manufacturer of iRiver music player, is selling a pocket TV from last month at below 130,000 won.

Date Posted: 7/2/2006