Nokia Argues in South Korea

Local media in South Korea has reported an apparent argument between Nokia's CEO, Jorma Ollila and South Korea's Minister for Information and Technology, Yang Seung-taik. Apparently, at a dinner reception held for Finnish President Tarja Halonen, Ollila made comments along the lines that the speed of wireless internet devices made in South Korea were not meeting expectations. Yang, who holds a telecoms engineering doctorate was reported to have taken out his own handset and claimed that he had been able to download mp3's over his cellphone, decrying Ollila's claims that the networks were only achieving 20kbps, far short of the 144kbps that they should be achieving.

Finland's President, Halonen then joined in asking why Nokia was not making the small colour screen handsets that he had seen in South Korea. Ollila is said to have replied that Finnish and Korean customers have different tastes, which does seem to be a remarkable comment considering the huge popularity of Ericsson's colour screen handset late last year, not to mention Samsung's huge market grab over the past couple of years

Nokia's CEO was in South Korea for a three day visit as part of the business group accompanying the Finnish President.'"

Posted to the site on 11th April 2002