It looks like the competition between the two giants LG and Samsung will have the next round among new 3g phones. It is said that in response to the newly released LG KU990, Samsung is about to release its new model W380 with similar technological features. 5 mega pixels camera, optical zoom and other beneficial features will make it a hard nut for LG to crack.

However, once again it becomes obvious how mature the HSDPA market in Korea is, in comparison to Western markets. The new Samsung phone has up to 7.2 Mbps of HSDPA speed (compared with LG’s 3.2 Mbps for its use in Europe). What one should keep in mind is that the technology, on both the handset and network side, keeps evolving and with it the services. The greater bandwidth and mature market in Korea create an interesting experimental ground for new services which require more bandwidth. User generated contents (like videos), broadband mobile gaming and other demanding services are all world leading in Korea today.

As you might know approximately one month ago we had presidential primaries of one party in which voting via SMS was allowed. Moreover the upcoming presidential election (held mid December) will be the first one with a reduced voting age (19 instead of 20 years of age). These two factors have increased the importance of young voters for policy makers, although the “thumb generation” is claimed to be relatively apolitical.

A way how this could be changed is a newly published mobile game called “President Tycoon” in which you have to lead your virtual character to victory. It can be downloaded on a Korean mobile for approximately 1 USD. Considering a mobile penetration of above 90% in the segment of 18-24 year olds in my point of view this could be a good way to sensitize this segment for political issues. In my point of view one logical extension of this model would be to utilize it for a certain candidate or party, provide it as a free download and utilize real contents from the political program – this would be real edutainment for the “thumb generation”. And also for the upcoming “thumb generations” in other countries.

In connection with yesterday’s posting I have found another interesting article in the New York Times. “In Korea, a boot camp cure for web obsession”, shows another example for my statement yesterday that Korea is leading in facing the challenges of digital society.
This article describes boot camp like institutions for young people who are addicted to the internet. I do not want to give a summary of the article but instead give you some interesting excerpts.

“South Korea boasts of being the most wired nation on earth. In fact, perhaps no other country has so fully embraced the Internet.”
“Compulsive Internet use has been identified as a mental health issue in other countries, including the United States. However, it may be a particularly acute problem in South Korea because of the country’s nearly universal Internet access.”
““Korea has been most aggressive in embracing the Internet,” said Koh Young-sam, head of the government-run Internet Addiction Counseling Center. “Now we have to lead in dealing with its consequences.”
“Korea is on the leading edge,” Dr. Block said. “They are ahead in defining and researching the problem, and recognize as a society that they have a major issue.”

I can only repeat myself: Korea is not only the place to look for business opportunities in the TMT sector but also if you are interested which challenges arise for the digital society and how they can be tackled.