Categories: MEX NotesOpinions, ideas and new thinking

MEX Notes: Korean device manufacturers tempt buyers with lavish competition prizes

  • Korean device manufacturers tempt buyers with lavish competition prizes – Network operators in South Korea are not allowed to subsidise handsets to sell wireless contracts, as is common in the the UK, US and many other countries. Instead, customers pay upfront to purchase their phone. However, this hasn't stopped smaller device manufacturers – such as Pantech and KT Tech – trying to tempt potential customers with competition prizes such as Ferraris and foreign holidays. It is an unsustainable strategy, promoting gimmicks over good user experience, and symptomatic of an industry with a short-term focus on the 'smartphone' gold rush. The most telling quote came from a Pantech spokesperson, who said: "We cannot compete head to head with Samsung and Apple with normal marketing strategy and features…"
Marek Pawlowski

Marek Pawlowski is the founder of MEX. Since 1995, he has focused the MEX business on helping digital industries to develop better, more profitable products through improved understanding of user behaviour with mobile devices and wireless networks. MEX is best known for its events, research and consulting, which balance commercial, technical and user insights to define the future of mobile user experience.

Leave a Comment
Share
Published by
Marek Pawlowski
15 years ago

Recent Posts

Design Talk 80. Digitally sustainable; Mirren Fischer, Founder, Brilliant Product Design

Mirren Fischer is someone who finds herself at the confluence of some really big challenges:…

5 years ago

Design Talk 79. Our future towns; Dan Phillips, Royal College of Art

Poetry and place...listening and lockdowns... Dan Phillips, who led the Royal College of Art's (RCA)…

5 years ago

Design Talk 78. Mark Baldino, co-founder, Fuzzy Math

Mark Baldino's path to co-founding a Chicago-based design agency wends its way from a degree…

5 years ago

Design Talk 77. Paul Campbell, Chief Product Officer, Centaur Robotics

Paul Campbell, a former chief designer at Ford, is now re-imagining the wheelchair at Centaur…

6 years ago

Interaction unintended

Opening the oven released a cloud of steam. I should have been expecting it. It's…

6 years ago

Design Talk 76. Placeful computing; Jared Ficklin, Chief Creative Technologist & founding partner, argodesign

Jared Ficklin's approach of 'think by making' has led him to produce remarkable digital design…

6 years ago