Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Most phone manufacturers have been working with the mobile phone service providers. In some ways, you need to do this so you can meet technological requirements (Japan and Korea still use CDMA technology, where the rest of Asia uses GSM technology). But in most areas, the phones are sold as part of a package with the phone service, and the phones are often subsidized by the service provider (not in all areas - when I was living in Korea a few years ago, the government puts rules in place stopping the subsidization of handsets).

Virago's question about brand is true. Are you going to brand under your own name? Many handset makers (like LG) have been producing phones branded under the name of the service provider. If you are branding yourself, then you will likely need to market to the end user. If not, then your markewting should be targetting the service providers.

Some of the older/larger phone companies (Nokia comes to mind) have not been branding their phones with the name of the service provider. The past few years have been difficult for Nokia, and perhaps this is part of the reason why.