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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: foundation who wrote (30969)	1/10/2003 6:33:44 AM
From: foundation	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197626

Character Live Screen, Next Big Thing in (Korean) Mobile Multimedia Service By Kim Joon-bae Friday, January 10, 2003 `Say good bye to ring and dial tones and hello to live screen.' `June,` a multimedia mobile content service recently unveiled by SK Telecom, is drawing keen attention from the animation and character industry with its live screen, or standby mode screen, feature. Live screen appears to have a promising outlook to succeed such killer content as ring tones, character downloads and dial tones, which is why the mobile content industry is keeping a close eye on the new multimedia service. Live screen works over third-generation mobile phones capable of video-on-demand for up to 30 minutes-long moving images. Content for screen service includes flash, 2D, 3D animations, music videos and drama clips. Early-movers that have jumped into the market are Sunwoo Entertainment, Buz Entertainment and Kims Anicom, with many more set to follow suit. And KTF, following SK Telecom, is also gearing up to provide the multimedia screen service. ? Growing Interest The live screen content business is not expensive to begin with, industry experts say. With most content providers already having animations for service, all they have to do is to select those most likely to appeal to teens and children and make some adjustments. Even when they create new content for the business, it does not take that much with the established infrastructure and experience in production. ? Next Big Thing? The industry is expecting the existing character download market will mostly drive demand for live screen service. 3G mobile phone services do not offer character download content separately, which will likely encourage existing users to flock to live screen service. The market is expected to take a large chunk of the entire character download market worth around 7 to 10 billion won a month. "Live screen is accounting for about 20% of the total demand for June mobile content service, an impressive figure given the service is still in a burgeoning period," said an official at SK Telecom. The size of the character market it will create remains a question as the live screen content, unlike the existing character downloads, includes music videos, drama, movie clips and moving images of people. ? Outlook The key is how many 3G mobile phones will hit the market. Industry experts see shipments of 500,000 units as a breakeven point for live screen business and 1 million as a starting point for profitability. The service is limited to EVDO phones for now, but the range will likely expand as wireless carriers begin to invest in IMT2000 in the second half. The number of new entrants is expected to rise sharply around this summer when shipments of 3G mobile phones hit the 500,000 level. etienglish.com ========== "..but the range will likely expand as wireless carriers begin to invest in IMT2000 in the second half.." Yep. Just ask DoCoMo, JPhone and Hutchison. As Korea gingerly invests in IMT2000 at MIC's direction. When will Korea MIC reevaluate and further truncate its plans for a European wCDMA showcase?

To: foundation who wrote (30969)	1/10/2003 8:02:08 AM
From: John Biddle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197626

With FOMA only drawing 3,000 additions this month, I wonder how long before net adds go negative. They started he service a little over a year ago, if I remember correctly, and I suspect that many of the customers are sorry they ever bought one of these phones. When customer's contracts are up, many will simply not renew, and continue to use the 2G phone they never stopped using. When we hit the one year (I presume the contracts were 1 year) anniversary of the heady early months when they were bringing in close to 10K, the net could easily go below zero. Also, these are people who obviously liked the idea of 3G, and probably can't wait to switch to 1X or DO to get what they sought in the first place. Those who do will be net adds to KDDI, improving the one stat that KDDI hasn't been able to improve significantly.