Rick Wolochatiuk


By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter

The new chief of Motorola's Korean phone division made his public debut Tuesday, along with the firm's sleek, powerful handset model, Z8m.

Rick Wolochatiuk said that Motorola will expand its third-generation (3G) phone models with the launch of Z8m during its launching ceremony, held in Seoul, Tuesday.

``Z8m is to be yet another success story in the Korean market. Moreover, I can assure you that Z8m is only the beginning of our rich portfolio for the Korean 3G market.''

Wolochatiuk and his boss, Mark Shockley, Corporate Vice President of the East Asian region, also said that the ongoing spin-off of the mobile division in Motorola won't seriously affect its South Korean operation, though there may be changes in its organization with the arrival of the new head.

``I think we have the pieces of the puzzle in place. An extremely successful, great partner, SK Telecom, and a great team,'' he said at the show held at the Grand Hilton in central Seoul. ``I'm very excited. And stay tuned ― I'm sure there will be some changes. But we will work together as a team to come up with the right strategies for the marketplace.''

The Z8m is Motorola's strategic 3G model and has a ``kick-slider,'' an angled hinge in the middle so the phone can sit more closely to the face. It also has various multimedia features such as a USB 2.0 connection, 4 gigabytes of expandable memory and a phone navigation system.

Motorola has been exclusively supplying handsets to SK Telecom in Korea. The two executives said they have no plan to sell its phones to other telecom operators ― such as KTF and LG Telecom ― at the moment.


Z8m is on sale at SK Telecom at the recommended retail price of 484,400 won. / Courtesy of Motorola The U.S. phone maker was the world's second largest phone seller until last year after Nokia, with its series of hit products such as RAZR. But its phone division began to struggle due to declining sales worldwide, while Korean firms Samsung and LG expanded their share of the pie. Finally, in March, Motorola decided to separate its Mobile Devices and Broadband & Mobility Solutions divisions by next year.

There was a surprising shakeup in its Korean branch, too. Former chief Kil Hyun-chang abruptly left the firm, only a week before a massive promotional event for which the firm invited David Beckham, the football superstar, as a special guest.

After the Beckham show was held without a main host, Wolochatiuk, a 25-year Motorola veteran, was brought in to Korea to take care of the mobile phone division on March 3. Remaining network equipment and solutions businesses are left in the hands of Choi Kun-sang, who is officially the representative of Motorola Korea on paper.

Wolochatiuk and Choi will have separate roles and will not interfere with each other's division, a company official said. She said it does not have anything to do with the scheduled spin-off of the mother company even though it may look like a pre-arrangement.

Shockley said Motorola's sales performance in Korea has been ``meeting expectations,'' though he didn't give the numbers ― the Korean phone market is tightly dominated by local brands such as Samsung, LG and Pantech.

He said Motorola hopes the replacement of Kil with Wolochatiuk will help the Korean branch better communicate with its global headquarters and get necessary support from it.

Wolochatiuk is also familiar with the Korean business environment since he has visited the country ``probably close to 100 times, literally,'' while working as a sales and marketing director, Shockley said.

``The Hyatt Hotel (in Seoul) gave him a gift for staying there 50 times. Not 50 nights. 50 different times,'' Shockley said.

indizio@koreatimes.co.kr