Nokia reenters Korea market with a couple of phones
HELSINKI, April 7 (Reuters) - The world's top handset maker, Nokia (NOK1V.HE), said on Tuesday it would introduce a couple of phone models in South Korea during its first year in the market it re-entered this week.
The country's second-largest, mobile carrier KTF 032390.KS started selling Nokia 6210s models for 396,000 won ($302.5) on Monday. [ID:nL6476952]
"Our goal is to start slowly with a couple of devices in the first year and build our presence and product portfolio overtime, learning from the market as we go," Colin Giles, Nokia's regional chief, said in a statement.
Nokia had not sold phones in South Korea, home market of its closest rivals Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and LG Electronics (066570.KS), for years because customers were focused on CDMA technology, not Nokia's strong suit.
Over the last two years, many Koreans have switched to faster third-generation (WCDMA) networks and phones, Nokia's strong suit.
Last year, 23.6 million phones were sold in South Korea, according to Gartner, around 2 percent of the global market, but its importance is proportionally higher as South Koreans buy feature-rich handsets that sell at prices well above the global average. ($1=1309.2 Korean Won) (Reporting by Tarmo Virki, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)
