Since Samsung Electronics release the world’s first Full HD 3D LED TV on February 25th, there has been explosive responses worldwide. Over the past 6 weeks, Samsung’s 3D TV has reached 10,000 in domestic sales, which means that 245 sets have been sold daily,  and just announced that it is expanding its production number from 2 million to 3 million as demands have been higher that expected.

Samsung has applied the ‘2D → 3D converting technology’ that allows the viewers to watch all programs in 3D with a click of the remote. It has a ‘real black filter’ to add shaded depths to bright areas of the scene to give a more dimensional figure. Furthermore, viewers can adjust amongst the 10 levels of the 3D effect. It has higher definition, with a slimmer design of 23.9mm, and is price competitive compared to the existing LED TV model.

Since its launching events in Europe, US, Latin America, and the CIS a month ago as, Samsung is leading a 3D TV fever with its global marketing strategy. Orders have been flooding, that Samsung 3D TV exports had to be shortly delayed.

In Manhattan’s Samsung 3D TV launching event, director of ‘Avatar’ James Cameron showed up and praised Samsung as “Beautiful and a business leader of the TV industry that has brought the 3D entertainment from theaters into our everyday homes.”

ESPN, Sogeocable, SBS have already gained 3D broadcasting rights for the 2010 South Africa Worldcup, which is expected to further boost demand for 3D TVs.

3D is expanding into major motion pictures, animation, home entertainment, concerts, sporting events, broadcasting television, advertising & smartphones. It is clear that the 3D industry is now never like the shows you saw in theme parks with the disposable blue& red glasses. 3D entertainment is not going to be a circus that leaves when the novelty is gone. It is here to stay and Korea is no way a trivial player in this field.

South Korea was ranked second in the 2008 broadband leadership, conducted by the Saïd Business School at Oxford and the University of Oviedo in Spain, and sponsored by Cisco Systems, the telecommunications equipment maker. This year, however, South Korea retakes the top spot in an annual ranking of broadband quality, achieving a broadband penetration rate of 97 percent and quality score of 66 points, followed by Japan with 64 percent and 64 points, respectively.

The study takes into account the download and upload speeds of Internet connections, rather than simply comparing market penetration rates since the quality of connections has grown more important as online services such as IPTV(Internet Protocol television) are expected to become popular in the near future.

The reason why South Korea was ranked second in the 2008 broadband leadership is that the broadband quality wasn’t good compared with its highest broadband penetration rate in the world. However, with the government’s continuous efforts such as the ultra broadband convergence network(UBcN) plan the broadband quality has been significantly improved as you can see below.

There is a swedish saying was that goes, ” Worry gives a small thing a big shadow”. This saying rings true, considering the recent cyberattacks on Korea. The current shadow is quite ominous despite no serious harm nor data-hacking was committed, but fear of an hidden North Korean aggression is overwhelming . However, Korea can seize this mishap to increase population’s level of awareness to cybersecurity.

As one of the most wired country of the world, Korea is exposed to an unprecedented extent. 93% of households are connected to Internet through HighSpeed Broadband, with an average PCs per 1000 population of 442. According to public statements of country’s biggest online security firm executive, the digital convergence of Korea carries even more threats : “Televisions and phones today are connected to the network and are designed with the same structure as computers, so you have to say they are potential targets”. Thus, a smartphone may become a Zombie and be included into Botnets, the vast group of infected PCs from where DDOS are launched.

The country is poorly prepared to ever growing cyberattack scale. By nature, the average customers are not inclined to spend money into expensive antivirus software. The government itself is reluctant to do so; budget for cybersecurity is 2 to 3 percents of IT-related amount.
Even financial organizations reacts only when threaten. Banks are now equipped since a cyberattack in February. It’s not the case for all others financial organizations : “Only a handful of major securities firms are equipped with systems to overcome DDoS attacks, and the rest are known to be vulnerable to such cyber terrorist attack”, leaked anonymously security firm source.

[Korea’s No.1 Anti-virus software]

Awareness is increasing . The government now engages structural plans to enable to separate local governmental network with civilian Internet if needed. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance will provide a cybersecurity center for financial and economical institutions within this year. More importantly, companies now purchase defense systems for their self protection. Sales reports record a boom for this range of products, pictured as a “flood” by an official of a security lab adding “After these attacks, DDoS blocking programs will see a rise in popularity”.

Korean situation is a warning for all countries walking toward digital age and ubiquitous society. One must prepare himself before danger is coming, not after, and the first step is self-awareness