- To present mobile services for a more convenient everyday life, including car infotainment, location-based information
service, NFC and quick payment by smartphone
- Plans to launch mobile service platforms globally building on success in Korea and optimized to the local environment
Seoul, Korea, February 25, 2013—SK Planet today announced its plans to showcase mobile lifestyle services at the Mobile
World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, the largest exhibition for the mobile industry.
SK Planet began to participate in MWC last year alongside SK Telecom. This year, the company will present mobile services
that can make everyday life easier for users such as: in-car infotainment, location-based information services, NFC and
smartphone-based easy payment.
MWC is the world’s largest IT exhibition and conference organized by Global System for Mobile Communication Association
(GSMA), which is a body representing over 1,000 mobile network operators, handset makers and equipment manufacturers
operating in some 220 countries.
SK Planet will proudly exhibit its car infotainment service, which was developed building on SK Planet’s special knowhow
in route guidance service called T Map and entertainment contents services such as T Store, Melon and hoppin. The wealth
of experience and knowledge from the existing offerings has helped SK Planet evolve the car infotainment service to a whole
new level.
There will be numerous demonstrations of the new services on offer. In addition to route guidance for drivers and pedestrians,
there are other interesting features that connect the mobile services and the vehicle. For example, as the driver is given directions,
the device can play music that has been chosen based on the distance, time and location parameters (T Map and MelOn).
The passengers can also enjoy the music, films and photos stored in their device using the GPS navigation unit (Simple Sync).
Last year, SK Planet partnered with Renault Samsung and became the first to commercially roll out a tethered car infotainment
platform. This means that volume models such as SM3, SM5, SM7 and QM are now installed with an embedded monitor,
which may be utilized as the medium for enjoying services like T Map and MelOn. In keeping with the connected devices trend,
SK Planet is in discussion with major carmakers to potentially partner on P2C (Phone to Car) services and solutions.
Another compelling offering SK Planet has in store for MWC is pickat, a location-based service that delivers information for
improving the everyday life.
Pickat is a social network service for local place information. It features reviews and tips provided by people who know where
to eat, to travel and to have fun. Subscribers to the service can refer to this information, share it with others and add one’s own
experience. Pickat differentiates itself from other location based services which generally provide places of interest (POI) and
little more. Information on restaurants, tourist attractions and events venues is provided based on common themes and
recommendations.
SK Planet plans to launch the global pickat in Singapore in April, but the first demonstrations will take place at the MWC.
SK Planet is currently working on various services targeting the broader Southeast Asian region.
One of the most interesting innovations by SK Planet to be featured at MWC is the NFC Stadium. It brings together
state-of-the-art NFC technology and a rich service knowhow to deliver a total NFC experience across ticketing, parking, entry,
game information and payment.
MWC participants can visit the booth which is themed as a soccer stadium and experience the NFC-based mobile commerce
simply by following along the usual order of activities involved in going to a match. From parking to buying a ticket, entering and
getting some snack to payment which runs across the whole experience is done through NFC. Visitors can enjoy the ease of
PayPin which allows quick payment via the smartphone. Other services based on the NFC open platform will also be showcased.
SK Planet’s in-house venture program Planet X will release the beta version of Beep! which is a smartphone-based payment
platform that allows the merchant to use his or her smartphone to process credit card payments. Planet X is now working to
commercially launch Beep!
Beep! is expected to draw much attention as diverse businesses, including obviously the restaurants that do a lot of deliveries,
could easily deploy this in their operation. SK Planet will hand out IC cards as well as gifts to visitors to encourage them
to try out Beep!
Other attractions to be at the SK Planet booth include the demonstration of T Store VOD with world’s first implementation of
Dolby Digital Plus, StyleTag (a fashion SNS), Photo Punch (automatic extraction of images from pictures), Push Planet (a push
solution for large volume of messages) and other apps and app service related solutions.
MWC participants can experience SK Planet at the SK Telecom booth in Hall 3 of Fira Gran Via.
