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

To: slacker711 who wrote (50735)	3/2/2006 8:17:54 AM
From: slacker711	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197030

Korean handset sales have actually gone down less than I would have expected ahead of the reinstitution of subsidies. times.hankooki.com Mobile Phone Sales Slump 7% By Kim Tae-gyu Staff Reporter Korea’s cell phone makers were struggling last month as domestic buyers anticipated the introduction of legal mobile phone subsidies later this month. Analysts suggest Koreans bought an estimated 1.3 million handsets in February, down 7.1 percent from the 1.4 million bought in January. ``It is surprising that mobile phone sales slowed down in February, when the industry is typically brisk thanks to demands in time with graduations and entrances into schools,’’ said Greg Roh, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities. ``Topping other things off, I think the envisioned handset subsidies prompted people to be reluctant to open up their purses to buy new phones,’’ he said. Samsung Electronics, the world’s third-largest cell phone maker behind Finland-based Nokia and Motorola of the United States, presented gloomier figures. Samsung, the domestic market leader, estimates phone sales here stood at a mere 1.23 million units in February with the firm accounting for about half of them. When contacted, Samsung also attributed the market lull to the imminent phone subsidies. Handset subsidies have been illegal since March 2003 when they were stopped to help cool the then intense competition among wireless operators, which provided phones at giveaway prices. The government tried to further lengthen the three-year interim policy, which is basically a sunset regulation due to expire on March 26. The National Assembly yesterday passed a revised bill allowing mobile carriers to subsidize those who have maintained their membership with the same carrier longer than 18 months. Under the revision, which becomes effective on March 27, upwards of 24 million subscribers will be eligible for the financial incentives when they buy phones. The new system will last for the next 18 months with the government expecting to permit subsidies without limitations beyond that. Currently, over 38.5 million of the country’s 48 million population carry at least one mobile phone, one of the world’s highest penetration rates.