Pantech Sources Innovation from Leading U.S. & European Design Firms

World’s seventh largest cell phone manufacturer works with Lunar Design, Fuseproject, Astro Studio, among other international consultancies to enhance handset design

More than 80 new concept models developed & demonstrated

March 20, 2006 - Lunar Design, a 21-year-old world leader in creating successful, iconic products for the consumer market, is among a cadre of talented industrial design firms that has been hired by Pantech Group, Korea’s number two mobile handset manufacturer, to deliver the next generation of cell phone design by harnessing the vision and trends of the world’s leading industrial design firms.

Pantech has commissioned the group of internationally renowned design consultancies - Astro Studios (U.S.), D3 (Germany), fuseproject (U.S.), iDox Design (Italy), Lunar Design (U.S.) and Therefore Design (UK) - along with an additional five domestic Korean I.D. firms to inform the company’s industrial design team on creative strategies and processes, ideas in styling, and trends in design from around the world. 

Pantech is ranked second in the Korean market with 25% market share. The company sells handsets under the Pantech brand overseas and maintains the SKY and Curitel brands in Korea. SKY is the number one premium brand in Korea, while Curitel is a leading mid/high tier brand.

“By working with these international consultancies, we are learning about new global design strategies and trends. Our design team is interpreting each consultancy’s unique approach to creating new phones that not only feature leading edge technologies, but are also designed in line with consumer lifestyles, with a view to creating an entirely new customer experience for Pantech cell phone users”, said Hur Jin, Director of Design Division, Pantech.

“We have chosen the partnership strategy rather than establishment of our own overseas design  studio because we think flexible partnership can provide wider variety and more open creativity than  what we could get from hired foreign designers,” said Seung Soo Yi, Design Planning team, Pantech.  “Additionally, we can share all our partners’ business networks and experience. It is great benefit for us to improve our global design capability in a short time. We have clear plan to have deeper partnerships with our best partners.”

Max Yoshimoto, VP of Design at Lunar, said: “I think it’s in our American culture to be pioneers. It’s that attitude which leads to innovation and originality. Subcultures are born here that constantly redefine the status quo. We wanted to provide a taste of that spirit to find the breakthrough that would differentiate Pantech’s SKY brand in the marketplace”.

“One example was to incorporate a high resolution widescreen display to optimize video-on-demand services. This meant the phone might not be the smallest phone in the world, a current trend that would need to be challenged,” said Mr. Yoshimoto. This innovative working relationship has exposed the Pantech internal design team to world leaders in design, internationally bolstering Pantech’s position in the cell phone market and enhancing the company’s understanding of the international cell phone consumer. During this process, more than 80 concepts were developed and modeled.

Pantech’s intent in working with the cadre of design firms was not focused on actual production, but on inspiring the internal design team. Now, the company can leverage aspects of the concepts in future production, as part of its ongoing development as one of the world’s leading mobile handset manufacturers.

Starting in 2006, Pantech hired Lunar Design to conduct international trend research in Milan, Paris, Bombay, Rio, Moscow and NYC. Collectively, the new findings will be interpreted and applied to Pantech’s future cell phone designs.

About Pantech

Pantech, through its affiliates - Pantech Co., Ltd., Pantech & Curitel Communications, Inc. and Pantech C&I Co., Ltd. - is ranked second in the South Korean domestic market and is the seventh largest mobile handset manufacturer in the world. Pantech has been responsible for a number of breakthrough innovations in the mobile technology sector, including the introduction of the world’s first fingerprint recognition camera phone in 2004, as well as award winning camcorder and MP3 phones. In May 2005, Pantech affiliate, Pantech &Curitel Communications, Inc. acquired SK Teletech Co., Ltd., the handset manufacturing arm of SK Telecom, the number one mobile network operator in Korea. The SKY brand, originally marketed by SK Teletech, is the most popular premium handset brand in Korea. In August 2005, to facilitate the goal of Pantech becoming one of the world’s top five mobile handset brands, Pantech Co. and SK Teletech were merged under the Pantech identity. Pantech collectively has about 5,000 employees and a total of 22 regional sales offices worldwide. For more information on Pantech, please visit www.pantech.com or www.curitel.com/english.

About Lunar Design

Lunar creates what's next in successful design. The firm's clients come to Lunar to get serious about applying design value to business. With a portfolio of highly successful products that have generated tens of billions of dollars in sales, Lunar has consistently held a spot among the top 5 award-winning industrial design firms for the last 10 years, according to Business Week magazine. Founded in 1984, Lunar provides full-service product development with offices in Palo Alto and San Francisco, CA. Lunar's current and past clients include Apple Computer, Cisco Systems, google.com, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft Corporation, Motorola, Philips, Oral-B, Palm, Pepsi and Sony.

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