ID :
186197
Fri, 06/03/2011 - 04:01
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/186197
The shortlink copeid
Smartphones changing the way Koreans think and communicate
(Yonhap Feature), June 3 (Yonhap) -- As she fidgets with her latest Apple gadget, the iPhone 3, Ko Young-kyung, a producer at a Seoul-based publishing company, wonders how boring her life would be without it.
While the advent of so-called "smart" technology such as the iPhone and the proliferation of social media like Facebook and Twitter have been cited as key factors in the wave of revolutions sweeping over the Middle East, in Korea, this technology is bringing significant changes both in the way Koreans think and communicate with one another.
"Well, it has made my life a lot less boring," Ko said. "I especially like the music -- how iTunes lays everything out -- and all the applications, like games. But I also like the Internet function. I wasn't interested in the news before, but now I am."
The smartphone was a late arrival in Korea; the Korean smartphone market developed in earnest only after the iPhone debuted in November 2009. But once the smartphone caught on, it did so with a vengeance. In late March, Korea recorded its 10 millionth smartphone subscriber, a number that is expected to climb to 20 million by the end of the year.
President Lee Myung-bak has taken notice, declaring early this year that "the Smart Revolution, along with the media big bang, is changing the world. This year will be the original year that an enormous change begins on a full scale."
Smartphones such as the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S might be ubiquitous, but what exactly makes them "smart"?
Richard Min, the co-founder of Seoul Space, one of Korea's premier IT incubators, has an answer: "They are able to do everything. Convergence."
Much of the success of smartphones in Korea was built on the back of the iPhone, a product Min described as a "truly disruptive technology" for the manner in which it shook up the market.
"Before, developers were up against the 500-pound guerrilla in the room," he said in an interview, referring to an entanglement of telecom companies, proprietary systems and culture. "It used to be a very supply-side economy."
The success of the iPhone opened the way for other platforms, too. As of March, Google's Android, a competitor of Apple's iPhone OS that has been adopted by phones such as Samsung's Galaxy S, accounted for nearly 60 percent of Korea's smartphone market.
The iPhone's importance was not limited to the phone itself. Just as important was the applications, or "apps," of which there were 75,000 available at Apple's App Store and the Android Market as of late March.
"It wasn't just the iPhone itself. It's all about the apps. The iPhone was not only disruptive in what it was, but also in what it brought with it. It was like a Trojan horse," Min said.
The most transformative apps were social media like Twitter and Facebook.
"Koreans love to talk. Apps that connect to social networking sites like Facebook and Cyworld are popular for obvious reasons, but there are also apps that will find where you are and let you share reviews of restaurants, theaters, etc with others," Chris Kim, a manager at KT Corp.'s Expat Marketing Department, explains. "There's also the ubiquitous Twitter, where people can get real-time news from other people who are on the scene, even before it hits news sites."
Min said 60 percent of Korean social network users access their networks with their smartphones. This, he said, is because they can do so anywhere since their phones are always with them.
"Go to any coffee shop, and see all the people on their smartphones," he said.
The Smart Era is radically changing the face of media consumption. One year before the arrival of smartphones in Korea in November 2009, Koreans spent 43 percent of their media-consuming time in front of PCs, 28 percent in front of TVs, 15 percent near radios and 8 percent with newspapers, according to a Nielsen poll released late last year.
A year after the release of smartphones, however, the time spent with PCs dropped to 33 percent, while that with wireless Internet devices such as smartphones and tablet computers skyrocketed to 23 percent, with corresponding drops in time with traditional media such as TV.
According to another poll taken late last year, this one of smartphone users conducted by the Korea Communications Commission and the Korea Internet and Security Agency, most of the users surveyed spent at least an hour on their phones using the Internet, and six of 10 used social networking services.
Min also noted another role of the smartphone, calling it "an agent of globalization."
"Globalization had been a buzzword. Now technology has caught up. Technology has enabled globalization to occur in a real way... The dam has broken." he said.
The use of foreign technology, such as the iPhone, and foreign apps and social media, like Twitter and Facebook, is integrating Koreans into a global media network to an extent never before realized, he said.
"This is not a one-way street, either. Korean designers and app makers are taking advantage of the smartphone to advance globally," Min said. "The easiest way for a local company to go overseas is through apps. It's a way in and a way out, a Trojan horse and a ticket out."
A growing emphasis on the "user experience," or UX, will be a conspicuous trend in the Smartphone Era, according to Kim.
"It used to be that the important part of a device was its specifications -- how many watts a speaker outputs, how fast the processor is, how much memory it has, etc," Kim said. "I think that manufacturers are slowly realizing that it's not about the specs, but more the experience. Sure, a laptop does much more than an iPad does, but the iPad turns on and shows you the news and weather in 5 seconds, not 5 minutes."
He added, "It might not be at the point where we have computers embedded in our sunglasses yet, but I can definitely see this trend going towards when and where I need it, as opposed to how many gigahertz does it run at."
While the advent of so-called "smart" technology such as the iPhone and the proliferation of social media like Facebook and Twitter have been cited as key factors in the wave of revolutions sweeping over the Middle East, in Korea, this technology is bringing significant changes both in the way Koreans think and communicate with one another.
"Well, it has made my life a lot less boring," Ko said. "I especially like the music -- how iTunes lays everything out -- and all the applications, like games. But I also like the Internet function. I wasn't interested in the news before, but now I am."
The smartphone was a late arrival in Korea; the Korean smartphone market developed in earnest only after the iPhone debuted in November 2009. But once the smartphone caught on, it did so with a vengeance. In late March, Korea recorded its 10 millionth smartphone subscriber, a number that is expected to climb to 20 million by the end of the year.
President Lee Myung-bak has taken notice, declaring early this year that "the Smart Revolution, along with the media big bang, is changing the world. This year will be the original year that an enormous change begins on a full scale."
Smartphones such as the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S might be ubiquitous, but what exactly makes them "smart"?
Richard Min, the co-founder of Seoul Space, one of Korea's premier IT incubators, has an answer: "They are able to do everything. Convergence."
Much of the success of smartphones in Korea was built on the back of the iPhone, a product Min described as a "truly disruptive technology" for the manner in which it shook up the market.
"Before, developers were up against the 500-pound guerrilla in the room," he said in an interview, referring to an entanglement of telecom companies, proprietary systems and culture. "It used to be a very supply-side economy."
The success of the iPhone opened the way for other platforms, too. As of March, Google's Android, a competitor of Apple's iPhone OS that has been adopted by phones such as Samsung's Galaxy S, accounted for nearly 60 percent of Korea's smartphone market.
The iPhone's importance was not limited to the phone itself. Just as important was the applications, or "apps," of which there were 75,000 available at Apple's App Store and the Android Market as of late March.
"It wasn't just the iPhone itself. It's all about the apps. The iPhone was not only disruptive in what it was, but also in what it brought with it. It was like a Trojan horse," Min said.
The most transformative apps were social media like Twitter and Facebook.
"Koreans love to talk. Apps that connect to social networking sites like Facebook and Cyworld are popular for obvious reasons, but there are also apps that will find where you are and let you share reviews of restaurants, theaters, etc with others," Chris Kim, a manager at KT Corp.'s Expat Marketing Department, explains. "There's also the ubiquitous Twitter, where people can get real-time news from other people who are on the scene, even before it hits news sites."
Min said 60 percent of Korean social network users access their networks with their smartphones. This, he said, is because they can do so anywhere since their phones are always with them.
"Go to any coffee shop, and see all the people on their smartphones," he said.
The Smart Era is radically changing the face of media consumption. One year before the arrival of smartphones in Korea in November 2009, Koreans spent 43 percent of their media-consuming time in front of PCs, 28 percent in front of TVs, 15 percent near radios and 8 percent with newspapers, according to a Nielsen poll released late last year.
A year after the release of smartphones, however, the time spent with PCs dropped to 33 percent, while that with wireless Internet devices such as smartphones and tablet computers skyrocketed to 23 percent, with corresponding drops in time with traditional media such as TV.
According to another poll taken late last year, this one of smartphone users conducted by the Korea Communications Commission and the Korea Internet and Security Agency, most of the users surveyed spent at least an hour on their phones using the Internet, and six of 10 used social networking services.
Min also noted another role of the smartphone, calling it "an agent of globalization."
"Globalization had been a buzzword. Now technology has caught up. Technology has enabled globalization to occur in a real way... The dam has broken." he said.
The use of foreign technology, such as the iPhone, and foreign apps and social media, like Twitter and Facebook, is integrating Koreans into a global media network to an extent never before realized, he said.
"This is not a one-way street, either. Korean designers and app makers are taking advantage of the smartphone to advance globally," Min said. "The easiest way for a local company to go overseas is through apps. It's a way in and a way out, a Trojan horse and a ticket out."
A growing emphasis on the "user experience," or UX, will be a conspicuous trend in the Smartphone Era, according to Kim.
"It used to be that the important part of a device was its specifications -- how many watts a speaker outputs, how fast the processor is, how much memory it has, etc," Kim said. "I think that manufacturers are slowly realizing that it's not about the specs, but more the experience. Sure, a laptop does much more than an iPad does, but the iPad turns on and shows you the news and weather in 5 seconds, not 5 minutes."
He added, "It might not be at the point where we have computers embedded in our sunglasses yet, but I can definitely see this trend going towards when and where I need it, as opposed to how many gigahertz does it run at."
