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To: mmeggs who wrote (19454)	12/9/1998 6:45:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 152472

MOT & KOREA> From the December 7, 1998 issue of Wireless Week Motorola Buys Stake In Appeal By John Park SEOUL, South Korea--At a time when decreasing demand is hurting many telecommunications equipment companies, newcomer Appeal Telecom Co. is making great strides. The company, based in Seong Nam City, near Seoul, has manufactured pagers since it was established in 1994. Appeal rose to prominence when it developed one of the nation's lightest code division multiple access personal communications services handsets last May. Appeal's sales growth is strong. In 1995, sales were $10.5 million, rising nearly 200 percent to $28.8 million in 1996. Last year, the company reported sales of $43.4 million. Ga Hyung Lee, president of the company, said sales are expected to grow 150 percent to $56.1 million this year. Last month, Motorola Inc. acquired a 51 percent stake in Appeal for $45 million. However, it is thought that the Korean firm will maintain management control "Motorola chose Appeal as its partner to take the lead in the Korean [code division multiple access] handset market," Lee said. Lee was an engineer at Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Korea's largest electronics company, before he established Appeal, formerly MI Tel Co. While working at Samsung, he headed a team of engineers responsible for developing cellular phones. After establishing his own company, Lee developed pagers with two other engineers for one year, introducing a square pager. More than 200,000 units were sold in the first six months. "The model was very popular among Korean consumers," Lee said. In 1997, Appeal introduced the ultra-slim and ultra-light numeric pager. In May, the company unveiled a small and light PCS handset. The model is 4.2 inches by 0.80 inches and weighs 27 ounces. The handset is powered by a lithium-ion battery. It also features a 3-line by 16-digit liquid-crystal display, one-touch dial, auto redial and up to 99 memory locations for phone numbers. Appeal said 25,000 handsets were sold in July, and the figure soared to 60,000 handsets the following month, easily taking up about 8 percent of the South Korean handset market. Lee attributed his company's growth to the continued efforts on research and development. While most Korean telecom firms spend only 3 percent to 5 percent of their sales on R&D, Appeal spends 15 percent. \| Home Page \| Site Map \| Search Archive \| PowerSearch \| \| International \| Wireless Web Sites \| Hot Stories \| Please send comments and suggestions on this Web site to jcollins@chilton.net Wireless Week, 600 S. Cherry St., #400, Denver, CO 80246 Voice: 303-393-7449, Fax: 303-399-2034 Published by Cahners Business Information © Copyright 1998. All rights reserved.