Korean users to have subsidies for PDA phones

According to an article on Korea Herald a new subsidy for mobile communication equipment is expected to go into effect as early as 15 April, lowering the prices of personal digital assistant phones and W-CDMA multimedia handsets by 25 percent and 40 percent, respectively.

Under the financial assistance program designed to generate fresh demand for these markets, PDA phones with 2.7 inch and larger displays and W-CDMA third-generation devices will retail from around US$400.00.

More than two-thirds of mobile phone users said they would consider purchasing PDA phones if prices fall, according to a market survey last week. Market research firm IDC Korea estimated a 60 percent rise in sales to 392,000 PDA units this year in a separate survey.

However, analysts say the influence on the W-CDMA market will be limited since the U.S.-standard mobile service is expected to mature only by the end of the year.

Only about 1,100 W-CDMA cell phones have been registered since KTF and SK Telecom, the country's largest wireless carriers, launched the services last December. By comparison, the country's mainstream third-generation mobile platform, CDMA2000 1x EV-DO, has more than 5 million subscribers. There are about 30 million cell phone users in Korea.

The article also points to the fact that LG Electronics launched the new LG-SC8000 2.8multimedia PDA phone, as reported here on Geekzone before. Samsung, according to the Korea Herald the nation's top electronics maker, plans to release a new PDA phone model by the end of June.