SK Telecom's LOView Service
The company launches new service for photo transmission thru mobile phones on Nov. 2
SK Telecom started its LOView service to facilitate the transmission of photos taken by camera phones or digital cameras to the digital frames at home whenever the users want to from November 2, the telecommunication company said.
In the case of photos taken by camera phones, the photos can be sent via color mail to *7777. Photos taken with digital cameras put on homepage on personal computers. Users can edit the photos before they are put on the homepage so that they can be shown like slides.
In order to be able to use the LOView service, users should be a registered member of their homepages and become an official member when a member buys a digital photo frame and allocated with 300 MB space where he can store photos and edit them. It is possible to put on photos on other homepages at the same time when putting on photos on his own homepage. Photo albums stored in Websites can be controlled with mobile phones through wireless Internet.
Official members can transmit photos without limit so long as they pay 3,000 won monthly fee and general members will be charged 200 won for each photo transmitted but there will be no charges until the end of this year during the service period. But photos transmitted through wireless Internet by mobile phones and color mail will have to pay fees.
Chief Joo Hyong-chul of SK Telecom U-Biz Office said the LOView service is an Ubiquitous Service because customers can upload photos regardless time and places on homepages of family members and lovers. SK Telecom plans to provide background music and moving images of multimedia, along with movies, beautiful scenery, news and weather service, in addition to other simple information, he said.
SK Telecom said its third quarter sales amounted to 2.6 trillion won, operating profit 670.9 billion won and net profit 587.9 billion won, up 2.7 percent, down 6 percent and up 25.9 percent from the preceding quarter. Sales increased 6.6 percent, operation profit 9.7 percent and net profit 48.6 percent on a year-on-year basis.
The company said increased sales in the voice and data markets amid stable three-way mobile market shot up its overall sales in the quarter. The sales figure was the largest quarterly sales figure in the company's history and owed to increases in value-added service including the international roaming, mobile cyworld and data communications wireless Internet sales. Operating profit fell 6 percent from the preceding quarter, due to wage and depreciation increases, but up 9.7 percent. Net profit showed a 48.6 percent increase from the same period last year and up 25.9 percent from the preceding quarter owing to the sale of a stake in SKY Teletec, which was included in the net profit figure.
The sale of wireless Internet totaled 653 billion won, up 9.4 percent from the previous quarter and up 38.8 percent from the same period last year, which was owed to rises in data communication sales such as mellon, cyworld, and other content products, accounting for 27.6 percent of total sales.
Marketing expenses totaled 452.9 billion won, due to increases in the number of new subscribers and fees, up 3.9 percent from the same period last year, accounting for 17.4 percent of total sales. The expenses were held below the allocated amount due to the company? solid base for profitability, company officials explained.
Sales per ARPU subscriber increased 4 percent from the same period last year in the third quarter at 44,921 won due to increases in data communication volume, diversified new value-added products put on sale and ARPU service. MOU (monthly communication volume) averaged 197 minutes in the third quarter, down 3 minutes from the preceding quarter, due to seasonal factors and Chusok holiday, but up seven minutes compared to the same period last year. Capital expenses in the third quarter amounted to 424.5 billion won, bringing total expenses for the year to the third quarter to 792.4 billion won, about 50 percent of 1.6 trillion won set aside for this year. nw

A family watches a digital photo frame at home