Nokia sees poor handset sales in Korea
After six years of absence, Nokia re-entered the South Korean Market in April 2009, with the release of Nokia 6210s.
As we’ve said before, the 6210s is a Nokia 6210 Navigator that has no navigation capabilities. The phone was launched by KTF, South Korea’s second largest mobile carrier, but sales have been “sluggish”.
Reportedly, KTF has ordered 30,000 6210s units. And, although it included them in its “free phones” line-up, Korean customers are still showing a modest interest towards the handset.
According to The Korea Times, this could be the reason why SK Telecom, the country’s largest mobile operator, may cancel the launch of the same phone, which was initially scheduled for the first half of 2009.
The giant carrier seems to be more interested in a new Samsung phone, as well as in an Android Motorola smartphone that should be launched by the year’s end (although we’ve heard it won’t be out until 2010).
Anyway, an SK Telecom official denied the cancellation of 6210s by saying:
“We expect Nokia to be a long-term business partner for us. It’s not like 6210s would be the last Nokia handset we will be releasing.”
Perhaps Nokia should try releasing phones like the 5800 XpressMusic and the N97 in Korea – these would probably attract more attention than the crippled 6210s.
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