Looks like Korea will finally be getting the iPhone, the Blackberry and all those other nice, international goodies of the modern age. The Korea Communications Commission has just ruled that started in April 2009, companies will be able to see phones in Korea without its obnoxious WIPI non-standard. Huzzah!
WIPI was a local “standard” developed back in 2001 that, unfortunately, no one else in the world considered worth using. Instead it became a de facto trade barrier, as it was not worth it for non-Korean phone companies to make their phones WIKI-compatible just for this one market. The result — no Blackberries, no Nokia, no iPhones in this supposedly tech-savvy market. Kind of weird. Definitely inconvenient.
You could tell that the barrier had to fall sooner or later. Blackberry, for example, hosted an event at the Pusan International Film Festival back in October; I doubt they would have done that unless they knew they would be coming to Korea soon.
Now, do I go for the Blackberry or the iPhone… (Since none of my friends like their Heptic or Prada phones, I doubt I will be buying either of those options).
Blueberry might be slightly better for exchanging ‘모해?’ text messages with one’s main squeeze all the day long, but iPhone is WAY nice. I have an iTouch, and I surf (& check dozens of email accounts simultaneously) lots with it. Don’t decide before you look at all the iPhone applications. I just see you as an iPhone kinda guy.