Helio LA launch party celebriful
by Ryan Block 
posted May 22nd 2006 @ 1:01PM
We totally missed Helio's big coming out party in LA this weekend at the Park Hyatt, but as we understand it was attended by none other than Tom Cruise (who carries a Hero) and ladyfriend Katie Holmes; apparently Helio's also making sure Steven Spielberg and, um, female Korean golfers like Pearl Siin have handsets with which to be seen around town. The Korean LPGA stuff is no coincidence though, Helio's using its half-Korean connections with SK Telecom to offer Korean Americans limited free calls to Korea, ringback tones, and games until June 30th. Perhaps more interesting still is according to Hankook Daily, T-Mobile -- who apparently currently carry about 35 percent of Korean Americans -- is supposedly pressuring shops to not vend Helio devices and service by pain of losing their T-Mo dealer license. We don't know if they'd so brashly engage in anything so anti-competitive, but SK, Helio, ET, the LGPA, and agent Hunt have their eyes on you, T-Mobile.[Via Telecoms Korea]
Update: Helio called us on our
