Central Korean carrier SK Telecom on Thursday surprised the financial community by reporting a rare drop in profit already being attributed to its lack of the iPhone. Its net income was still healthy but dropped 7.2 percent to the equivalent of about $210.1 million, the first drop of any kind in the past nine months. Officials at SKT blamed the reduced numbers on extra spending for marketing and other promo deals to keep customers from defecting to rivals KT or LG Telecom.
