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Abstract: KT introduced its SHOW App Store in an event on September 24, where more than thousand observers participated. It can be said that at least in terms of scale and style, the event differed from that of SK Telecom, in which its T Store was revealed. For using app store services, data usage fee has been considered as the biggest barrier. SK Telecom’s T Store, has already been criticized due to its somewhat expensive data plans, and KT’s effort in trying to offer better alternatives for the end-users compared to its rival, was clearly demonstrated in the event. To enable a more affordable data downloading, KT will allow the users to download applications via 3 different wireless networks, Wi-Fi, WCDMA as well as WiBro, and is planning to offer drastic cuts on data access charges. KT is to slash the data charges to one-seventh from the current level, and is to support various payment plans, including pre-paid, micro-payment, and post-paid to increase customer convenience. Moreover, the most significant differentiation point in KT’s strategy is that it allows the use of Wi-Fi for downloading applications without increasing the burden of data transfer costs to the end-user. In addition, KT plans to provide some of its SHOW applications for free to the customers who purchase the latest smartphones and also offer coupons and other options as well. In the SHOW App Store event, KT emphasized that for running an open marketplace in a mobile environment, developers are as important as the end-users, and in order to create an app store with rich contents, the company pledged to increase the convenient accessibility for developers. Therefore, to draw more developers, KT will reduce charges related to registration and certification of applications. When an application is registered for the first time, the charge will be set as 1,000 won and it will be only charged once. To reduce the developers’ burden to a minimum, KT said that it will not levy charges for certifications. KT is planning to invite many developers by allowing its own software development kit (SDK) to be plugged in to the existing developer tools of Windows Mobile Visual Studio, and therefore is more time-saving for the developers as it does not require long training. To include also the existing WIPI-based application developers, KT announced that it will provide a WIPI Converting technology, showing that the company is taking efforts in trying to create a developer-friendly environment. In general it seems that KT’s app store strategy has greater potential than that of SK Telecom. However, it is too early to make a comparison between these rival app stores as KT is still in the planning stage, and it remains to be seen which one of these operators will succeed better in the Korean market. But by focusing on the convenience of both end-users and developers as well as providing affordable data plans with attractive handset line-ups and reducing registration fees on the developer side, KT is certainly offering a highly competitive alternative. |
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