Officially, it was the discrepancy between the value of the dollar and that of the won, combined with aggressive marketing strategies of companies like Nokia and Motorola that have driven Korean battery-turned-handset maker VK into receivership, a form of bankruptcy. Personally, we believe it had something more to do with the
boatload of
unimpressive and stylistically unoriginal handsets (
Kickflip notwithstanding) they've released since they entered the mobile phone game in 2002. Either way, they'll surely be missed; if not by us, then by SK Telecom and other investors who parted with billions of their won earlier this year in a failed attempt to keep VK afloat. Our only regret is that we won't get to pocket the 4-megapixel VK 2200, but since we don't live in South Korea, there's a good chance we never would anyway. Oh well, at least we'll always have
CeBit.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
-_- @ Jul 7th 2006 5:54PM
so, helio, what are you going to do now? huh? the hero isn't going to take you any farther than the kickflip. too bad, guess you'll just have to introduce more kick-a** korean phones to take it's place. just make sure they have bluetooth this time. okay?
voodoo @ Jul 8th 2006 4:21AM
Thank God VK has kicked the bucket I work for vodafone and we had an 80% return rate on all of their handsets.
Mike Evans @ Jul 8th 2006 5:57PM
VK Mobile: From topless women (http://mobilementalism.com/2006/03/10/cebit-2006-vk-mobile-launch-naked-women/) to tits-up in just 4 short months. RIP.
Never could understand Helio's approach with VK Mobile and Pantech phones, though. They claimed they wanted to bring big-featured Korean phones to the US, but the KickFlip and Hero were hardly that. Besides, all Samsung and LG had to do was to release one of their behemoths in the US, and it's game over!
And that's just what Samsung seems to have done with its new SCH-a990 3.2 megapixeller being released on Verizon. A phone with better specs than either the KickFlip or the Hero, now on sale in the US. Where next, Helio?