LG and Samsung are worried about Nokia's price cut rumor

Rumor came out that, in order to get better position in the South Korean mobile phone market, Nokia is going to lower the price of its products. The news has irked LG and Samsung two of the top mobile phone producers of South Korea. With its lower priced mobile phone sets Finnish mobile giant, Nokia, is planning to acquire 20% of the South Korean mobile phone market. Phones Review reports:

LG told Reuters that they are “carefully watching” Espoo and will be keeping an eye on their tactical moves over the coming months. LG will also counter with “product portfolio” and “marketing strength.”

Nam Yong, chairman and CEO of LG Electronics has told reporters that unless it could turn out products which “differentiated” themselves from Nokia then price competition was “inevitable.”

To counter Nokia’s price cut, Yong said that LG would go on creating competitive products rather than going for “cheap prices.” Mr. Yong also said that his company will continue targeting the premium market and will movie into the low end market when it would feel that it has built its presence.

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Preview of Samsung Access Mobile Phone

If you are interested to watch television program in your tiny mobile screen even when you are on the go, then I think, Samsung Access could be worthy a mobile phone for you. Samsung Access mobile allows its uses to have access to AT&T's mobile TV service. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (SEO:005930) has launched this handset for giving a real TV experience in mobile screen to its consumer.

No doubt, this is the most attractive features of this mobile set. Web browsing, messaging, music and other typical features of an average phone are also available in Samsung Access mobile phone.

Infosyncworld reported:

Pros: Mobile TV looks much better than streaming clips, more like real television. Phone is simply designed, like a small TV set.

Cons: Call quality lacking. Other features good, but seem like also-rans. TV quality wasn't perfect, and we're already missing advanced features, like DVR.

Well, it is true that this is not something of a unique set, rather I think, Samsung would launch updated version of Samsung Access. However, counting its real-TV experience it provides to the users, Samsung Access seems to be a handy mobile set for enjoying television program, even when you are traveling. So, if you are thinking of buying TV supported mobile phone, then you can include Samsung Access in your option list.

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Samsung Access Mobile Phone

Samsung : Disagreement with subcontractors resulted into Gumi plant shutdown

World’s largest electronics company, Samsung Electronic Co., Ltd (SEO:005935), had been forced to shut down its plant due to disagreement over material price with its contractors. This incident also provoked lots of negative criticism and marred the company’s image. The company admitted that its mobile phone handset producing plant at Gumi in Seoul had to stop 20% of its operations for eleven hours, starting from 11 p.m. Friday to 10 a.m. Saturday, as the small and medium-sized subcontractors accused the company of passing on the cost-cut burden upon them. Korea Times reports:

Samsung said the plant has been normalized after it agreed with the participants to review prices in upcoming talks. However, worries are high that Samsung’s premium handset image might get hurt in the long term without decisive measures to ease such disputes.

Samsung hopes to narrow the market gap with the industry leader Nokia by sticking with a two-tier strategy _ premium phones such as the Soul and Haptic from its domestic plant and mid-tier phones from those overseas. The company plans to increase the annual production of handsets in Gumi to 80 million this year from 75 million in 2007.

This is the first incident of production halt in Gumi plant since its inception in 1988. There are 630 suppliers in Gumi. According to the report of Strategy Analytics, a market research firm, Samsung and Motorola is currently at the second position controlling 16.4% of the global mobile phone market. A Samsung spokesperson said that the company should strengthen its price competitiveness at Gumi plant as the product is losing its pricing edge. Currently, Samsung has manufacturing facilities in India, China, and Brazil. It will set up another facility in Vietnam to meet its current production target of 200 million.

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