Korea's smartphone users top 10 million

The state media regulator said Thursday that the number of smartphone owners here exceeded 10 million people earlier this week, surging more than twelvefold from 800,000 in 2009.

The Korea Communications Commission said that a total of 10.02 million people used smartphones as of Wednesday, showing a sharp increase since the launch of Apple's iPhone in Korea in November 2009.

From 800,000 in December 2009, the number of users rose to 2.47 million in June 2010 and to 7.22 million in December. It further increased to 9.26 million last month, topping the 10 million mark this week.

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The KCC estimated that the number of smartphone owners will top 20 million by the year end.

Since the introduction of the iPhone here, local major handset makers such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have raced to join the competition.
 
The number of Korean smartphone users surpassed the 10-million mark this week.

Samsung rolled out its flagship smartphone Galaxy S, running on Google's Android mobile operating system, in the second half of last year, while LG was slower to release its flagship smartphone, Optimus.

In 2010, Samsung and LG garnered a market share of 8.6 percent and 1.9 percent in the global smartphone market, respectively. A total of 45 different smart mobiles were released in the local market in the same year, the regulator said.

"Due to the wide use of smartphones, the functions of mobile phones have moved beyond only offering voice calls, which was their main function in the past, to making their position as a comprehensive service platform that enables the search of information involving transportation, games, finance and education," said a KCC official.

According to a government survey, more than six out of every 10 people who owned smartphones were in their 20s and 30s, whereas 30 percent were in that age bracket for general phone users.

It was also found that over half of smartphone subscribers were under unlimited data usage plans, where a basic fee of 55,000 won applies every month, which contributed to the sharp rise in mobile data traffic.

Mobile data traffic was up more than 11 times to 5,463 terabytes last January, from 449 terabytes in January 2010, said the KCC.

The KCC said it will make further improvements to the smartphone payment plans and expand the number of affordable smartphones as well as make joint efforts with telecom firms and software developers for better mobile content in a bid to improve service for smartphone users.

3월 24, 2011  |  ~가(이) 포스트한 기사: afterabc admin , Seoul
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