SEOUL, June 7 (Korea Bizwire) – Facing the limit of growth due to market saturation, the nation’s wireless carriers are seeking for new sources of revenue.
SK Telecom, the leading wireless telecom operator in South Korea, is reportedly keen to step up its “appcessories” business. “Smart Beam,” a compact beam projector and its flagship brand in the appcessories business is a case in point. Riding on the wave of booming outdoor leisure sector, the projector has recorded cumulative sales of 80,000 ones so far, raising the prospect of new income stream beyond its “traditional” business.
Given that the size of Korea’s projector market is about 100,000 units per year, the sales of Smart Beam seemed to have fared well. The company secured an export deal to supply 8,000 units of Smart Beam to seven different countries — including Germany and Japan last year, and signed another export contract for 5,000 units with a Brazilian retailer this year.
SK Telecom’s smart learning devices are gaining traction as well. Atti, innovative kids’ learning robot which was unveiled at MWC 2013, will be marketed in Spain through Telefonica, the leading wireless carrier in the country. SK Telecom also succeeded in exporting 1,000 robots to France.
LG Uplus came up with its answer by launching Home CCTV, a rotating HD closed-circuit TV controlled remotely with a smartphone, last year. LG Uplus is expected to gain a further boost by its recently introduced “Home Boy 2.” Home Boy 2 makes the best of G Pad features, enabling a variety of functions including telephone, audio, TV, e-book and security (CCTV) — especially popular among “solo” consumers since the system is optimized for a single household.
KT’s Kibot was so popular in the middle east market such as Saudi Arabia.
In fact, KT was the pioneer in the appcessory market since it first introduced an education-purpose robot “Kibot” in the market but it has not come up with new appcessory products recently.
Of late, it is reported that three major telecom companies are eyeing physical security and the Internet of Things in their efforts to find out “next big things.”
To this end, SK Telecom has taken over a security company NSOK in February , apparently in its intention to step into the security market. KT is not a new entrant in this field; it has already been placed in the third spot in the security industry with its affiliate brand KT Telecop. LG Uplus has signed a partnership deal with ADT Caps which is an expert in offering black box service for cars.
As with the Internet of Things or IoT sector, SK Telecom has already showcased a couple of pertinent technology including building energy management system (BEMS) and factory energy management system (FEMS) which monitor and control the lighting, air-conditioning and heating at big-sized buildings and factories.
KT, meanwhile, has announced that it would expand IoT business focusing on environment, security and health sector in order to take the leadership in the area and lead the international standardization of related technologies. KT has recently established a “Smart Campus” at Sookmyung Women’s University based on the Internet of Things technology, which enables an easy access to such service as library seating reservation and class attendance management using smartphones.
LG Uplus opened the LTE Open Innovation Center in 2011 to provide infrastructure for the Internet of Things-related technologies by universities, laboratories and small businesses using the LTE network. The company has also come up with a Smart Clean System which collects and processes food wastes. The costs of garbage disposal can easily be paid by a rechargeable transit card.
Written by Robin Koo (linguistkoo@koreabizwire)
Contributed by Jerry M. Kim (jerrykim@koreabizwire.com)
