Korea's Pantech Rings Up U.S. Sales

It's been a whirlwind year for Pantech Wireless. The Atlanta-based subsidiary of South Korean cellphone maker Pantech Group has released six phones in the last 12 months, including four in the last quarter. AT&T is promoting two of the handsets in TV spots as ideal holiday gifts. Patrick Beattie, Pantech Wireless' vice president of marketing and sales, says the company has never been busier.

While wireless giants like Nokia (nyse: NOK - news - people ) and Samsung slash their forecasts, Pantech Wireless, also known as PWI, is counting on its portfolio of slim, reasonably priced cellphones and its close ties with AT&T (nyse: T - news - people ) to help it grow in 2009.

Beattie says PWI's focus on stylish phones that mostly sell for $80 or less should boost its prospects in the current downturn. "We think our value is really resonating with customers in the U.S.," he adds.

Parent Pantech has a long and storied history in wireless. Following its founding in 1991, it says it created the world's first CDMA phone in 1994 and the first fingerprint-recognition phone in 2004. In its home market of South Korea, Pantech is the No. 3 cellphone maker, after Samsung and LG. In 2007, Pantech Group had revenues of $1.7 billion and sold 7.5 million Pantech-branded phones. It operates eight regional subsidiaries worldwide, in Beijing; Mumbai, India; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; St. Petersburg, Russia; and Sao Paulo, Brazil, among other cities.

PWI has sold products in the U.S. since the 1990s, but didn't target the market seriously until 2006, Beattie says.

Industry observers say PWI is taking the right steps, but remains a small player. Ramon Llamas, a senior research analyst at IDC, says Pantech ranks around No. 25 globally in handset sales, on par with Japan's Casio Hitachi. (IDC's figures, however, don't include the contract manufacturing work Pantech does for other brands.)

At the end of third-quarter 2008, PWI had just under 1% of the U.S. cellphone market, according to IDC. Beattie declined to give market share numbers, but said both PWI's and Pantech's sales figures had improved over the past two years.

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To break out in the U.S., PWI must work closely with operators, says IDC's Llamas. "Distribution is the name of the game. It's great to be part of AT&T, but they should try to get in with more national carriers," he says. He is enthusiastic about PWI's Matrix and Slate phones, which have full Qwerty keyboards, noting that Americans are quickly snapping up messaging phones.