“The expansion of the wearable device market has definitely played its part,” said a ministry official. “Many consumers are those that use the devices alongside smartphones as secondary kits.” (image: KobizMedia/ Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, June 1 (Korea Bizwire) – According to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, the number of domestic wearable device users from the Big Three telecommunications companies (SKT, KT and LG Uplus) totaled 510,066 in April. The figure, however, is limited to devices that use SIM cards, such as some smartwatches.
The number of subscribers to wearable device services has been consistently increasing, from 398,412 in January 2016 to 429,198 in February and 467,948 in March.
The April number marks an almost tenfold increase compared to the 50,237 in December 2014.
“The expansion of the wearable device market has definitely played its part,” said a ministry official. “Many consumers are those that use the devices alongside smartphones as secondary kits.”
The total number of Korean cell phone subscribers is 54 million, 44.7 million (82.7 percent) of which use smartphones, with another 9.3 million feature phone users.
By Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
