Broad mobile vision: Kitae Lee, president of Samsung's Telecommunication Network Business, outlines the company's vision for mobile technology and details its plans on mobile TV and mobile WiMAX

Telecom Asia, Oct, 2006

Telecom Asia: Korea is ahead of the curve in mobile TV. How fast do you see it taking off in Asia Pacific and what are the drivers pushing it?

Kitae Lee: We have been working proactively for mobile TV development and expansion. In Korea, mobile TV subscribers to Satellite Digital Mobile Broadcasting (S-DMB) and Terrestrial Digital Mobile Broadcasting (T-DMB) services are already reaching two million. I expect that mobile TV service will be the next big thing in the industry and will be a basic multimedia feature for high-end mobile phones by next year. Essential for the success of mobile TV will be how soon customized mobile TV content, interactive services and value-added applications are developed for the market.

What mobile TV technologies have the most potential?

With several mobile TV technologies competing--DVB-H, T-DMB, MediaFLO, ISDB-T and S-DMB, the most appropriate technology will be chosen by each country according to each country's current digital TV technology, current broadcasting infrastructure and available frequencies. European countries are interested in T-DMB and DVB-H technology while the US are preparing for DVB-H and MediaFLO. In Korea, T-DMB and S-DMB have already been successfully launched.

Besides having a dominant position in Korea, with about a 70% market share in mobile TV phones, Samsung launched the first T-DMB phone for the European market, the SGH-P900, in Germany at the end of May in time for the World Cup. Samsung also provided two DVB-H handset models in Italy.

Takeup of mobile email and use of mobile Internet are increasing rapidly. How is Samsung positioned to benefit from that trend?

Our innovative smartphone, the SGH-i320, equipped with a QWERTY keypad and Microsoft OS, has been very well accepted in the market, and we plan to introduce more models customized for email features.

At the same time, we are aggressively investing in future mobile technology such as mobile WiMAX, which will change the definition of mobile data communication--not only email communications but also broadband wireless data communications with full mobility.

How important is Sprint Nextel's $3 billion WiMAX plan to the future of the emerging high-speed mobile technology?

Sprint's broadband vision goes beyond traditional telecoms. Sprint chose mobile WiMAX technology as its 4G mobile service because it sees the revenue opportunities associated with providing customers with a high-speed, high-quality, low-cost and convenient 4G service that includes a proliferation of devices and content. Most importantly, Sprint will have a faster, better and different broadband platform that supports hundreds of millions of computing, entertainment and consumer electronic devices that are hungry for mobile wireless broadband connectivity. There is great demand for high-speed mobile data access through cost-efficient and reliable technology, and mobile WiMAX is the answer for that.

What is Samsung's role in the project?

Samsung will be a primary mobile WiMAX infrastructure supplier and will also deliver dual-mode devices supporting mobile WiMAX and cdma20001x EVDO, designed to enable Sprint's mobile WiMAX users to use Sprint Nextel's existing 3G network resources. With its installation of networks in South Korea and other markets, Samsung Electronics is the first to commercially deploy mobile WiMAX, and with its alliance with Sprint Nextel, will bring this global expertise to North America. We offer Sprint a total solution including chipsets, infrastructure, mobile devices and consumer electronics focused on mobile WiMAX and dual-mode WiMAX/CDMA services delivery.

With handset designs now a vital factor in a phone's success, what mechanisms do you have in place to monitor global trends?

Design is more crucial than ever as the mobile phone becomes more important in our everyday lives and becomes more of a fashion item rather than just a communication tool. I always emphasis the importance of design, and that's why we could introduce a series of successful phone designs, such as the clamshell, female concept design, swivel LCD for mobile TV viewing, slider, and recently, very slim designs in all form factors.

To understand the trends and market needs and to be proactive, we use our overseas design centers and overseas sales team. We also communicate closely with our service providers clients.

I see two basic points for mobile phone designs: portability and screen size for multimedia features. As we need larger and larger LCD screens for the latest multimedia features such as mobile TV, mega-pixel cameras, video recording, etc, the mobile phone should aim to be thinner and thinner to improve portability. Slimmer and wider is a major design trends that I've seen. Our Ultra Editions are a good example of this trend, showing the slimmest phone for each form factor.

Do you see a trend away from piling additional features onto handsets after the experience of the past few years?

Because the mobile phone is basically for communication with mobility, and communication means sharing information, viewpoints and even each individual's small world, I think the mobile phone will be a "hub" for communications to connect me and the world. Hence, all existing multimedia content and very high-speed data access will be merged with biotechnology and nanotechnology into the mobile phone of the future. We believe that the mobile phone will bring "the world to our hands", which is our vision of mobile communications.