- President Lee Myung-bak is still open to a summit with Kim Jong-il… sorta: “When we get into a situation where (such a summit) may be helpful for peace on the Korean peninsula and the settlement of the nuclear issue, there is no reason why I can’t meet him, even within this year.”
- According to the JoongAng, North Korea’s artillery nonsense in the West Sea was preceded by the North sending about 10 fighter justs towards the NLL near Baengyeong-do on Jan 26. The South scrambled F-16s in response.
- For fishermen in the region, it’s life as usual.
- So…. will the iPad succeed in Korea?
- Dude, drunk cops beating up a Buddhist monk? Well, that certainly doesn’t look good.
- In the KH, Lucy Corne lists Seoul’s best beer.
- Somebody went to Mingadaheon.
- So, according to the Ministry of Justice, 34,022 individuals applied to become naturalized citizens in 2009, nearly double the 2008 number. Some are apparently trying to pull one over on the system, though: “예컨대 한국인 남성이 중국에서 알게된 여성과 낳은 딸이 자신의 딸이라고 믿고 법무부에 국적 취득 신고를 했지만 법무부는 한국인 남성이 중국 체류 기간이 짧다는 점을 의심해 유전자 검사를 한 결과 중국인 여성이 몰래 중국인 남성 사이에서 딸을 낳은 사실을 밝혀냈다.” Ouch.
- On a slightly related non-Korea note, this is why politicians shouldn’t be shagging Manhattan party girls.
- Way to support your relief workers in the field there, guys.
- The WSJ apparently has a travel piece on Pyongyang at night. I don’t have a subscription, but the Chosun Ilbo sunmarized the article here.
- Shuddering Korean, foreign actors.
Odds and Ends: Jan 29, 2009
Previous post: Great… Another American Caught in North Korea
Next post: Financial Times Says Samsung is Vulnerable
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
As a top-level business leader (ho ho!), I’ve been yearning for a lightweight device like iPad which could be used for Internet and e-mail on the go, especially in hotel rooms or conference rooms on the road. Since in those circumstances the use is 90% consumption / 10% production, losing the weight and bulk of the keyboard, hard drive, and DVD reader is an attractive proposition.
For me, the iPad will be a winner, because I mainly use the non-Korean Web — which has widely adopted the so-called “Web Standards” (XHTML/CSS, and increasingly HTML5/CSS3) approach to developing websites. Web Standards design takes notice of the multitude of ways users access the Web, whether by Mac or PC, handheld device, Safari/Firefox/Internet Explorer (or even Opera!) browser.
But I think it will face challenges here. The Korean Web is mired in the Microsoft Internet Explorer, Windows XP, and Adobe Flash monoculture. In particular, Korean customers of web designers are stuck on having some kind of animated nonsense for their navigational elements, which are invariably executed in Adobe Flash. Since Apple’s mobile browser on iPod/iPhone/iPad does not and apparently will never support Adobe Flash, even the top-level the navigation of Korean websites will remain inaccessible to those users. Korean iPad users will get a broken home page, and then be unable to navigate off of it. Not understanding the technical reasons for that experience, and being ignorant of developments in the wider world, Korean iPad users — and the “Apple Must Be Stopped” elements in the Korean press — will blame that difficulty on the iPad, and call it “incompatible”.
It should be a runaway hit here. Korea’s 3G and WiFi connectivity are absolutely first rate. So on a hardware level we should be in the catbird seat. That “ubiquitous” information age they’re blathering about? It could actually be implemented in Korea. Unfortunately the software side holds us back.
I agree with Brendon. Here in Korea the infrastructure is killer! The Hardware is killer! The software is dead.
The infrastructure is killer. The hardware is killer. The software makes you want to kill yourself.
‘지난해 국내 거주 외국인 수가 100만 명을 넘어섰다. 국제결혼 등이 늘면서 ‘대한민국=단일민족’이란 통념도 깨지고 있다. 방송은 이 같은 사회 현상에 가장 민감한 매체다. 최근 예능·드라마에서 활약하는 외국인이 늘어난 것도 ‘외국인 100만 명 시대’와 맞물린 현상이란 분석이 많다. 실제로 요즘 안방 극장에선 더듬더듬 한국어를 하는 외국인들을 쉽게 만날 수 있다.’
i still feel shell shocked about it all. for so much of my life, nobody here in the west ever cared about korea much less learn it’s language. man, times are changing.
ps that’s a fantastic gravatar, stafford.
The Ipad is so magical that you won’t be able to listen to music while surfing the internet, or keep your email and a spreadsheet open simultaneously. It can only handle one app at a time with no multi-tasking whatsoever, which makes it about as revolutionary as the Commodore 64 sitting in my basement.
Not to mention no hdmi, no internal usb or sdhc (but hey, Apple will be glad to sell you several overpriced ugly adapters!), no ability to upgrade the hdd, no replacement or extra battery (but hey, Apple will be glad to overcharge you to replace it for you!), no camera, no software except those available in the Apple app store (which is notorious for rejecting useful apps from competitors), no 16:9 widescreen, nothing but AT&T’s craptastic network to choose from, a ridiculously oversized bezel, and a pathetic 1024 x 768 screen which means most HD content won’t play at native resolution.
Except for all those things, it’s a magically revolutionary piece of awesomely overhyped, overpriced crap! Apple’s stock drop today and pretty much universal panning from every tech mag/blog in existence seemed to confirm that consensus as well.
IHBB,
Hilarious. They should have just saved themselves the trouble and just tied four iPhones together!
I’m sure they will find enough Applistas to buy it to turn a decent profit…
The Applistas don’t have enough pull to avoid an Ipad flop. Successful Apple products thrive when early adopting techies fall in love and spread the word to the techno-retarded friends/relatives and convince them to jump on board. I don’t see that happening here with such a widespread disdain for the minimal specs and limitations among the people that matter.
And I should have said flash RAM, not hdd above.
Actually, music on iPhone OS X runs in the background while using other apps like Mail and Safari on iPhone, so I can’t see how it would be different on iPad.
Also, those of us here in ubiquitous Korea won’t be saddled with the AT&T network. We have two excellent 3G carriers. I think KT remains the logical best partner because of the NESPOT WiFi network that KT operates.
The bezel makes sense to me as a place for your hands to go while you’re holding the device. As for all those missing ports and dongles, that’s not really Apple’s style and besides, who needs that nonsense if your data lives in “the cloud” you access by wireless data transfer? Naysayers groused about Apple dropping the floppy drive in 1998 when introducing the first iMac. Now everyone else has caught up.
Only thing I see as missing is HD video out, but I would not be surprised to see some enterprising soul figure out a way to transfer that data over WiFi. Why insist on being tethered?
Apple’s stock drops after every product announcement, when the world finds out that the eagerly-anticipated device is just an excellent electronics product and not a cure for cancer. Over time, though, it’s hard to argue with Apple as an investment since Steve took over. As late as Christmas 2003 you could have bought Apple at $10 a share. Now it trades for $200 and most stock analysts rate it a strong buy based on proven recent track record and future growth potential.
Based on Korea’s import tax and VAT regimes, my guess on Korea price points for iPad is: 16GB WiFi+3G, W850,000 – 32GB W990,000 – 64GB W1,150,000. This assumes the Won holds around W1150 to the dollar — not always a safe assumption with a currency as volatile as ours.
Brendon tells it as it is… (except in matters political!)
The impacts of the Mac, iPhone, and now likely the iPad, are truly radical, and extend far beyond the prognostications of sooth- and nay-sayers alike. These devices merely represent the physical and informational traces of profound transformations in human consciousness, whose convergent histories have yet to be properly appreciated.
My experience is that when most sell-side analysts rate a stock strong buy, it is indeed time to sell.
True enough. It’s not a good idea to buy into a company you know nothing about simply on the recommendation of some stock guy.
However, I know Apple — and the computer industry in general — pretty well. Apple is the only player with any real growth prospects in that industry.
Said so i wouldn’t short Apple, i tried once across 07 and 08 and bbarely saved my skin. I was totally skeptical about the prospects of the iPhone too: it seemed to me an overpriced less than mediocre smart phone in terms of internet capability, especially comparing to what we already had in Europe or let alone Asia at the time, in a highly competitive market and launched just in time for the recession to kick off.
Well clearly i was wrong, never underestimate the power of slick design and brand mystique, especially when you sell to a certain kind of people
Coming in on the heels of the very successful local iPhone launch can only serve to dampen sales of the iPad, if it’s released here in March as expected. And, if we’re going to be objective, bemoaning the lack of Flash playability is hardly a Korea-only phenomenom – American media sources report that it’s just as bothersome to folks there. Plus, lack of multi-tasking is a real suck factor when using the device for anything beyond entertainment.
Still, Thomson Reuters quoted Amazon as reporting that ‘ it is now selling six Kindle e-books for every ten physical books on its site in cases where it has editions in both formats, excluding free downloads’. Considering how book-loving a country Korea is, cheaply-priced titles – because Korean-language titles are relatively cheap – could help to boost sales of iPad in a market that isn’t being catered to by Amazon and its Kindle.
You’re right Brendon, you can run Itunes and use another app. But you couldn’t run say, Pandora and surf the web. There are lots of apps for internet streaming of music/news/radio/sports that are unavailable as long as you’re using any other app. The lack of multi-tasking is an absolute dealbreaker.
As far as the cloud goes, the reason it hasn’t taken off is because it’s not yet reliable in terms of consistency or availability. An sdhc card is. Good luck accessing that cloud of data on a 15-hour flight or streaming a bluray rip or high bitrate HD home video over wireless.
For the average person who already pays for a data plan for their phone, and pays for a home internet connection, how willing do you think they’ll be to pony up another $30 a month for a third internet connection just to feed the pad?
By the way, I’ve been defending Apple and its stock here for quite some time. That doesn’t mean every product will be a hit and they can’t be criticized when they miss the mark. I think it’s pretty clear that there’s not enough of an overlap between a solid smartphone and laptop/netbook. Apple is trying to create a sweet spot and cram a product range in between. I just don’t see many people looking at the Ipad and thinking they have to have it, because it doesn’t offer anything new. It’s basically a large Itouch, and as far as range of use, capability, and price, it gets destroyed by even the shittier netbooks on the market.
And netbooks are still way overpriced
Just as blogs and wikis are part of an ongoing radical shift in literacy, Job’s innovation in putting the Internet into the hands of users will radically transform business, education and everyday life. Students will use e-books delivered wifi thru the iTunes Uni, on tablets which enlightened universities will provide to each student on enrollment. E-texts will be frequently updated, and allow scope for integration with user-created content and with links to web-hosted resources. It will become normal to bring to bear (subsets of) the whole world’s knowledge and experience onto immediate set problems and specific projects. And those boorish posters who cannot see beyond their own limited self-interest will fade into the dust of their illusions…
And how much money that will produce ? I’m still waiting for Wiki profits or for Google profits in any other business line outside of their text advertising near-monopoly
The tech reporters for the Korean newspapers are clearly clueless about anything relating to Apple. Whoever believes that the iPad will arrive in Korea in March is clearly not aware of the history of Apple in Korea. Korean language was deliberately left off the list of languages supported. International debuts will not occur until May and Korea is not even on the radar screen. The iPad is clearly going to make it to China, Japan, and Russia before landing in South Korea. Let me put it this way: Apple prioritizes a *quality* experience for the users of its devices, plus it also has years of frustration trying to deal with Korean companies. They clearly do not think conditions are right at this time. Like the iPhone, expect to wait a while. Brendon, with any luck, when it does arrive it will be a 2.0 version with a camera, USB, and multi-tasking added on. I’ll get mine when it gets to Tokyo. But I can sell you my used MacBook Air.
Plus new products have to be tested and approved for “special” Korea conditions, which adds 30-60 days (I understand). Hence (for example) new iMacs are not released here until well after international release.
#18 Wiki Profits, advertising near monopoly?
Yes, the refusal of the Republic of Korea to accept foreign certifications as equivalent to Korean certification results holds back the release of foreign products. Also, the strong likelihood that anything of interest filed with the Korean government will immediately find its way into the hands of LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics and/or the local press means that pesky foreigners concerned about confidentiality will be leery of filing anything with the Korea Communication Commission in advance of their products’ release elsewhere in the world. But one may have noted that Apple hasn’t filed any documents about iPad with the Federal Communications Commission either.
This is the difficulty one encounters when your every move goes onto the front pages.
Arghaeri i meannt that lots of web 2.0 ventures still have to show any kind of profit (sometimes any kind of revenues at all) and Google is profitable basically only in its core text ads business….just replying to the guy who was praising some new economic/business/knowledge paradigm
I don’t understand why Brendon, et al. are ranting about the magical Apple gadget as if assuming that every foreigner herre can just walk into the nearest shop and purchase one…..without first going into Itaewon and asking a bargirl to marry you so that you can get the necessary “F” visa in order to buy one.
#23 I know what you meant about google, but why also cite as an example a non advertising deliberately donation only organisation.
Albeit, I’m sure the founders draw a salary, which is the thing really, does it matter if google makes little profit when the founders are drawing off huge compensation packages
Leguwan eh!!
We’re talking tablet PC, do you really think you’ll need and F2 to buy one. Ibooks, ipods and many other Apple goods are easily found here, its getting phone packages which is difficult. So you might have difficulty if you need one with full G3 phone connection, but otherwise buying one shouldn’t be a problem if an when they release it here
“i heart blue balls” – even if you avatar pic is not a fist squashing a pair of balls, and only looks like it, I find it offensive and in poor taste, and can’t understand why Robert would allow it (assuming he’s aware of it). If it is actually a fist squashing a set of blue balls…I won’t even go on.
You must log in to post a comment.