It was KT, the no.2 mobile carrier in Korea, that launched iPhone 2 months ago. Obviously, SKT needed counterpart smartphones of its own and decided to launch 15 Android phones in 2010 alone. The Asia-adapted model of Motorola's Droid, named MOTOROI, was the first Android phone introduced in Korea. Today, Samsung finally made an announcement about Korea's second Android phone.

Samsung had already launched 2 Android phones in the U.S last year: Galaxy and Behold 2. In the new model, Samsung completely localized the product for Korean consumers. What message do I get out of this? Samsung IS indeed very serious about the smartphone market. Samsung wants the smartphone phenomenon to happen in Korea.

Samsung's Omnia sold more than iPhone in January. Hey, does that mean Samsung easily beat Apple? Not so quick. According to an article published by Donga Daily, iPhone is far more popular than Omnia among smartphone users (link in Korean), but Samsung exerted more "local player" power on the retail side. The article even goes on to say Samsung knows such a move is nothing more than a bandaid. Samsung very much needs to start producing better smartphones.

Either way, I'm happy. As I keep saying, the Korean digital market has been dark, if not dead, for years. Now the wind of change is blowing strong and more competitions and even "confusion" are being spotted across the field. All the better for us consumers :)

Korea's two heavyweight mobile champions, Samsung and LG, will (have to) learn a lot this year, competing against Apple. It ain't just about technology no longer. It's about design, culture, ecosystem, and most importantly people.

The magical, but most obvious formula: Technology empowers and enables. Culture gives comfort. Design moves the hearts.

2009 was a dark age for both the digital Korea and my blogging career. Fortunately, it was only dark on the surface. Some significant progresses were made and we're seeing the fruits in 2010.

As for Korea, there's probably no bigger milestone than iPhone's invasion into the Korean market. It's been out only for 2 months now and it's literally changing everything in the digital landscape. How fundamental do I think the change is? The iPad news last week was reported by more than 500 Korean news entities, probably making the biggest IT/digital headline ever in Korea. SKTelecom says it has nearly 15 Android phones lined up for this year. How exciting! (For me, I am carrying around a 8G iPod Touch with Wibro Egg for now, which I'll cover more later)

As for myself, I learned a lot, especially about being a serious blogger and a businessman. As a blogger, I used to whine about  myself "not being in the field"; I always thought unless you've actually done some "real" stuff, being a blogger/journalist/analyst/consultant/critique/spectator always will have limitations. 2009 was all about execution, which took away the privilege of sleep from my life. Now I'm finally back, hopefully ready to roll again.

2010 is going to be a big year for both the digital Korea, (which is the main topic of this blog), as well as TechnoKimchi itself. After the Dark Age came Renaissance. There are many good signs that'll happen soon here as well.

Now, why didn't I start this on Jan 1st? I had followup tasks to finish for 2009 and things pretty much ended last week. Or should I say "the mental fiscal year for TechnoKimchi ends on Jan 31 of every year?" ;)

Digital Korea will soar again and TechnoKimchi will expand: those are my predictions for 2010. Thank God, I still got 334 days to prove that!