Smartphones move PC power onto palm of hand

By Kim Tong-hyung

Koreans were late to the smartphone party, but have been rapidly making up for the lost time. The market for these feature-rich, high-end phones opened up when the iPhone finally arrived on Korean shores last November, and now wireless carrier KT says it has sold more than 1 million of Apple’s do-it-all handset as of Thursday last week.

Samsung Electronics is also seeking sales of its Galaxy S smartphones. Now more than 1 million Koreans rely on the Samsung product for much of their daily “mobile life” from communication to entertainment.

Whether the iPhone or Galaxy, the smartphone has brought significant changes to Koreans’ lives.

Smartphones, which work more like handheld computers than conventional phones, are bringing dramatic changes to Korean mobile habits — the handsets are no longer used chiefly for their telephony functions, but to browse the Web, read e-mails, connect to social networking friends, enjoy music and movies, and play games.

The devices are finally allowing telecommunications companies KT and SK Telecom, which is responding to the iPhone mania with a slew of devices powered by the Google-backed Android mobile operating system, to get real returns from their massive investment in third-generation (3G) networks.

The companies were also pressed to offer a larger variety of monthly data plans and expand their free Wi-Fi coverage to meet the increasing demand for data consumption.

After all the ambitious talks about delivering the portable Internet over the past decade with Korea spending massively on home-grown technologies like WiBro (wireless broadband), it’s the smartphones that finally allowed Koreans to get the Internet on the go.

As the Internet moves increasingly toward mobile devices and changes the way people consume information, there is also an expectation of a renewal of office life, currently defined by buzzing fluorescent lights and packed cubicles.

The country is now looking to exploit its advancement in digital equipment and wireless technology to create a networked work environment that allows people to conduct tasks anywhere, anytime and through any device.

The “smart work” initiative, announced by the government in July, aims to have around 30 percent of public employees work from home or nearby “smart-work” centers by 2015 with smartphones, laptops and other mobile Internet devices, which is hoped to boost productivity and minimize carbon emissions.

The transition is to be assisted by the arrival of “cloud computing,” which provides a new method of Internet usage in which information and software are delivered over the Web, rather than through desktop computers.

“The 1 million iPhones sold reflects that smartphones have now become a mass market product. Now, any Korean can use the iPhone with our free Wi-Fi and unlimited 3G data plans to get a taste of a ‘mobile wonderland,”’ said Pyo Hyun-myung, who heads KT’s wireless business.

SK Telecom, the country’s largest mobile-phone carrier, is attempting to combat KT’s iPhone onslaught with Android-based devices like the Samsung Galaxy S.