For some, living in a country where BlackBerrys were outright banned would be a fate far, far worse than death -- you know who you are -- but for South Koreans, that nightmarish scenario is a reality. Weird rules and regulations in the country make it difficult for foreign manufacturers to gain the same foothold that domestic powerhouses like
Samsung and
LG enjoy, and RIM in particular has been a total no-show. Turns out CEO Jim Balsillie is paying a little visit to Seoul for the Organization on Economic Cooperation and Development's Ministerial Meeting on the Future Internet Economy next month though (goodness, what a mouthful), and the Korea Communications Commission felt just a little silly about his visit in light of a nationwide RIM ban, lifting it just enough to allow SK Telecom to start selling the mobile email maestros to companies. Individual sales, not so much -- but you've got to start somewhere, we suppose. If all goes well, devices should go on sale some time in July or August with service running some 26,000 won (about $25) per month.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DT @ May 14th 2008 5:50PM
Sounds like something that should be taken up by the WTO. Protectionist policies like this have no place in modern business.
burrrn @ May 15th 2008 12:29PM
BlackBerries were never banned in South Korea per se.
Korean standardization authorities mandated all phones sold in Korea be able to run WIPI (yet another Java-based mobile phone application framework similar to Java ME and BREW) -based applications.
RIM was unable to re-engineer BB's OS to meet the WIPI standards, and was not able to market its devices in Korea.
With the advent of smartphones, carriers started complaining to the regulator mandating the now-antiquated WIPI platform on all devices is unreasonable, and the government recently agreed to scrap the requirement.