PC manufacturer TriGem was once a household name in Korea, the first company here to sell desktop computers starting in 1981. But TriGem went into court receivership in 2005 due to cash flow problems as PC sales dwindled amid hot competition from Chinese and Taiwanese rivals.
Now TG & Co., an affiliate of TriGem, has forayed into the smartphone market.
TG said Monday it will start selling a new smartphone called LUNA through mobile provider SK Telecom on Sept. 4.
The LUNA costs just around W400,000, but features similar specs as high-end smartphones in terms of speed, memory capacity and camera quality, and has a 5.5-inch screen.
TG head Lee Hong-sun (54) is the son of TriGem founder Lee Yong-tae. TriGem used to compete head-to-head with Samsung and LG until the early 2000s, but ended up folding as the pie grew smaller and competition intensified.
It was sold several times to different owners. Lee junior founded TG in 2011 and bought TriGem back in 2012.
TG, whose annual revenues amount to just W6.3 billion, decided to throw down the gauntlet in the smartphone market due to Lee's close ties to Terry Gou, the head of Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., better known as Foxconn.
TG designed the LUNA and Foxconn manufactures them. Foxconn controversially makes Apple's iPhones, and Guo is one of the richest people in Taiwan. One telecom insider said Guo is believed to have a stake in TG.
The LUNA is therefore expected to serve as a litmus test of Foxconn's ambitions to expand its own lineup of smartphones.
SK Telecom is stepping up marketing for the LUNA, throwing in free batteries and setting up 108 service centers across the nation in conjunction with TG. SK needs to find a new partner which can provide exclusive smartphones, as Pantech used to do before it went belly-up.
Ji Seung-hyun at TG said, "Our strongest point is partnering with market leaders like Foxconn and SK Telecom. If we succeed in the Korean market, where consumers are very particular about their smartphones, we can succeed anywhere in the world."
