"They don't supply the old models anymore. Soon consumers won't have any other option than to buy 1X phones," said Ham June-shik, a mobile phone vendor in Seoul.
"For the carriers, the 1X service makes economic sense. You don't have to spend much to upgrade for the 1X," said Lim Byeong-yong, vice president for corporate strategy at LG Telecom.
Since introducing the 1X service last October for the first time in the world, South Korea's SK Telecom has converted 1 million subscribers to 1X phones. KTF and LG, which began the service around May, have a combined 210,000 subscribers using phones with Internet links.
SK expects 360 billion won (US$281 million) in revenues in its mobile Internet service this year, or 5.4 percent of its expected total sales of 6.6 trillion won (US$5.2 billion).
In a race to stake out ground on the wireless Internet, the carriers are pushing down the prices. Once US$600 apiece, the Internet phones are now sold at US$130 to US$430, depending on options such as a color display or high-quality speaker.
In prime-time TV ads, movie and rock stars romp with flashy phones with color monitors, holding them like a Nintendo to play games. A hot model comes with a detachable camera that allows the user to take a color picture and send it to a friend.
A key question is how often those owning the new models use the mobile Internet service.
"The screen is too small for the Internet, and the speed is not what they promised," said Kim, the college student. "So I still use my phone mostly to make calls."
"Full mobile Internet won't happen until the devices evolve to have a palm-size screen and their prices go down further," said Lim of LG Telecom.
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