Abstract
The purpose of this paper, from the point of international competitiveness, is to clarify the systems of production, development and components procurement in the Kore mobile phone industry since the 2000s.Following three points were revealed as conclusion.
First, the mobile phone corporations in Korea have been promoting in parallel domestic production and overseas production. In the 1990s, Korean government has decided to commercialize the technology of second generation of CDMA system. Private companies and electronic communications Institute (ETRI) were earliest domestic production system through joint research and development. Due to the global competition since 2000, overseas production was started earnestly. The mobile phone corporations in Korea took a Two-Track strategy for overseas production to capture premium products and medium-low price products simultaneously.
Second, the mobile phone corporations in Korea strengthened the development of hardware and software sector. Specifically, In hardware sector, building platform and standardization of components, miniaturization and thinning of the product architecture and downsizing in the chipset, Samsung has developed smartphone application processor by a one-chip high-speed CPU. In the software sector, building of Mobile Solutions Center ,and it was possible for thefirst time self-developed the smartphone OS Bada.
Third, the mobile phone corporations in Korea have succeeded in procuring the components from in-house companies, small and medium-sized companies and foreign companies. Baseband chip was imported from Qualcomm and Texas Instrument. Other components are sourcing from affiliates including domestic companies. The components procurement system resulted in a high specfication of the mobile phone, a module of the components. High rate of the in-house production of components procurement, shorter lead time in manufacturing, ensuring cost competitiveness, speedy components procurement system, which lead to a height of product maturity, the source of competitiveness of Korea mobile phone companies.
