An article in the Joongang Daily today reports that the "Smart Phone Revolution" in Korea is finally starting. It was accompanied by the graphic shown to the left (click on graphic to see a full-size version). Last year only about two percent of consumers used smart phones, defined as those capable of accessing e-mail or the internet and performing functions much like a small hand-held computer. This year the percentage of smart phone users has risen to 22 percent.Expert predictions when the Apple iPhone was introduced have been shown to be way off target. For example, experts predicted that 1.8 million smart phones would be sold in 2010. Now the predicted figure is up to 5 million.
Not surprisingly, the introduction of smart phones has been accompanied by a boom in wireless data transmissions. This is not surprising because most, although not all of the applications on the iPhone and other smart phones, rely on internet access.