SEOUL, KOREA - Korea grabbed the No. 1 spot in the world in terms of smartphone uptake rate which refers to the share of smartphone users in the total population.
According to the latest report of U.S. market research firm Strategy Analytics, Korea’s smartphone popularization rate reached 67.6 percent last year, the highest among the countries surveyed. This is 4.8-fold higher than the global average of 14.8 percent.
Following Korea was Norway whose smartphone penetration ratio stood at 55 percent. This is the first time for Korea to rank No. 1 in the smartphone user number ranking.
In 2011, Korea’s smartphone popularization rate stood at 38.3 percent, ranking No. 4 behind Hong Kong’s 46.7 percent, Sweden’s 39.7 percent, and Singapore’s 38.4 percent.
Korea’s smartphone user percentage has been on an upward trend, rising from 0.7 percent in 2007 to 0.9 percent in 2008, 2.0 percent in 2009, and 14 percent in 2010.
Key factors behind the rapid increase in Korea’s smartphone usage include the establishment of 4G LTE network following the 3G network, paving the way for the popularization of smartphones.
