Cellphone Company Makes A Call: Korean Americans

The Washington Post writes how new MVNO Helio is targeting spoiled teens, tech geeks and Korean Americans for its "new $250 ultra-high-tech cellphone."

According to the article, "Korean Americans make up less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, but U.S. telecommunications firms take note of them because their kin across the Pacific are among the most tech-savvy people on the planet. So Helio decided to tap them as a unique market, a laboratory of sorts for germinating products they hope will catch on nationwide."

John Jackson at Yankee Groupe thought "It's a mistake to sort of religiously adhere to the notion that a market like the U.S. is going to faithfully replicate the Korean experience. Are we in a few years going to be consumers who listen to music, download video and broadcast TV on our phones? Of course. But you have to take into account that every market has unique demand-side characteristics and the U.S. is an extremely diverse market."

Seamus McAteer at M:Metrics added, "It is slow, but there's a misconception out there that the U.S. is backwater."

The article focuses on how Korean Americans are using cell phones and mobile services in the U.S....