South Korea’s mobile infrastructure is paying off for smartphone vendors in the country after it was revealed today that the number of smartphone users has reached 30 million users, equating to around 60 percent of the country’s 50 million population.
Yonhap News highlights figures released by the country’s three mobile operators, which totalled 29.97 million on August 18. The carriers estimate that over the weekend, a further 60,000 consumers will have purchased a new smartphone, taking the total over the 30 million mark.
The country’s largest carrier SK Telecom shared 14.72 million users as of Friday, with KT registering 9.4 million and LG Uplus accounting for 5.78 million. Of all of those sales, LTE smartphones made up 9.21 million (more than 30 percent) of them.
It’s taken just over three months for Korea’s operators to add more than 3.5 million smartphone owners. In May, we reported that smartphones had passed 50 percent penetration among South Korea’s mobile phone owners, where it stood at 26.72 million smartphone owners (50.8 percent of all 52.55 million mobile subscribers).
South Korea is home to Samsung, which has enjoyed huge sales across the world. According to IDG, Samsung shipped 50.5 million units worldwide in the second quarter, holding a market share of 34.6 percent. Sales of the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note have both reached 10 million sales each since launch.
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