Phones aren’t just for talking anymore

Mobile phone service providers are cranking up their entertainment offerings, hoping their customers will use their phones for more than just conversing with their friends. Now that phones are also mini TVs and computers, mobile content, which telecommunication companies once considered peripheral, is seen as a fast-growing market. “About 75 percent of the population owns cell phones so mobile service providers can’t make any more money on phone calls. This is why they are turning more and more to developing other contents,” said IT market analyst Choi Byung-gee. Last year, the cellphone market grew more than 20 percent compared to the previous year, comprising 16 million phones nationwide. And it’s only going to grow. According to a Samsung Economic Research Institute report released yesterday, there will be a surge in demand for cell phones with digital multimedia broadcasting services. Only a couple of years ago, text messages made up the bulk of the add-ons users sought, with 42 percent of all additional services. Now, however, text messaging makes up less than 14 percent of the extra services, with caller ID, ring tones and navigation services taking an increasingly larger share. The fees for these services can be small, but they add up. Currently, about 250 different options are offered here. Service providers are also moving toward more sophisticated, and more expensive, extras, such as mobile banking and stock trading, to personal health and security services. Advanced technologies for three-dimensional interface phones have paved the way for a larger gaming market. According to the Samsung institute, the mobile game market racked up sales of 218.7 billion won last year ($211 million), a 50 percent increase compared to 2003. Next year, the market is expected to reach 410 billion won. The phone companies are also offering more digital music since LG Telecom released the first MP3 phone in March 2004 amid strong opposition from the music industry. In November, SK Telecom opened Melon, the first online music site to be run by a mobile service provider. Other service providers have quickly followed suit. by Wohn Dong-hee