South Korean government to come up with their own smartphone platform

Smartphone users will probably be more than familiar with brands such as Samsung and LG and possibly even Pantech, phone brands which have come out of South Korea. It appears that the South Korean government have decided to start developing their own open-source smartphone operating system.

The reason behind this move is because the local government is looking to give their local smartphone makers “competitiveness” against foreign platforms i.e. iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7 to name a few. Given that the Samsung Galaxy S II is considered to be THE smartphone at the moment, we don’t really see why the big hitters would require any more help, although perhaps smaller brands that don’t make it out of Korea would gladly welcome the help.

This move was also partially in response to the recent Google acquisition of Motorola, and now that Google has the capacity to produce their own handsets, there’s a worry that one day Google may close its doors to Android and transform it into a closed-source system. While there are no indications that Google has any plans to do that, Kim Jae-hong, a deputy minister from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, said that they could not rule out that possibility.

No details were revealed other than their intentions and their plan to launch the project by the end of the year. What do you guys think? Will it do better than Samsung’s Bada?

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: LG, open source, pantech, Samsung, south korea