BlackBerries were never banned in South Korea per se.
Korean standardization authorities mandated all phones sold in Korea be able to run WIPI (yet another Java-based mobile phone application framework similar to Java ME and BREW) -based applications.
RIM was unable to re-engineer BB's OS to meet the WIPI standards, and was not able to market its devices in Korea.
With the advent of smartphones, carriers started complaining to the regulator mandating the now-antiquated WIPI platform on all devices is unreasonable, and the government recently agreed to scrap the requirement.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
burrrn @ May 15th 2008 12:29PM
BlackBerries were never banned in South Korea per se.
Korean standardization authorities mandated all phones sold in Korea be able to run WIPI (yet another Java-based mobile phone application framework similar to Java ME and BREW) -based applications.
RIM was unable to re-engineer BB's OS to meet the WIPI standards, and was not able to market its devices in Korea.
With the advent of smartphones, carriers started complaining to the regulator mandating the now-antiquated WIPI platform on all devices is unreasonable, and the government recently agreed to scrap the requirement.