Though somewhat late to arrive to the party, iPhones have taken off in Korea with a vengeance. And as the iconic s

martphone has seen its sales soar, its applications, or apps, have become a local phenomenon too. Just as amateur app designers have reflected local needs and tastes around the world, Koreans are coming up with their own games and solutions - with intriguing, lucrative, results.

Kim Si-hyun, head of the Chinese Character Education Research Institute, is one of the most famous lecturers of Chinese in Korea. Every semester his lectures at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Dongguk University and Sookmyung Women's University draw more than a thousand students. Despite his common touch, however, Kim long shunned the digital lifestyle. Social media or mobile phones, he felt, only served to undermine human-to-human contact. But this lifelong Luddite recently transposed his conventional popularity into a more high-tech form, with the hugely successful "Kim Si-hyun's Chinese Dictionary for Everyday Living," which shot to No 3 in the Korean store for applications for Apple's iPhone. So why the big change?

The story began in February of this year when Kim, who didn't even own a mobile phone, was asked by his students to develop and app for their iPhones that would help with their studies. Kim gave it some thought, consulted with business partners and, overcoming his technophobia, decided to give it a go. Besides a Chinese dictionary containing 2,300 key characters, Kim built several other apps that offered help in studying for Chinese tests, then watched as his creations became an overnight success.

Apple's iPhone arrived in Korea on November 28, 2009. In the nine months since then, the handsets and apps have become a phenomenon. After joining the revolution late, Korea's App Store now offers some 6,500 apps (there are around 134,000 available in total).

In Korea, app development is no longer the exclusive domain of techies. From corporations and public agencies to teachers and restaurateurs, app makers are popping up in all walks of life. As for apps themselves, their influence is being felt in economics, industry, politics and culture. For Korea, "The Age of the Apps" has truly arrived. "Compared to just three months ago, the demand for new apps has tripled," says Yang Soo-yeol, research chief at Inpion Consulting, a web services company. "To meet this demand, we see more and more app developing companies and individuals appearing almost every day."

As wildly successful as it's been, Kim's Chinese app is just one of a flurry of hits designed by and for Koreans. Seoul Bus, designed by second-year high school student Yoo Joo-wan, became a smash hit by telling Seoulites exactly how long they'd have to wait for their bus, whichever stop they were at. Since its release last December, Seoul Bus has been downloaded 560,000 times.

Seoul Bus also served another, hugely important role: teaching civil servants the value of openness. When the app was first released, the governments of Seoul and Gyeonggi-do Province - on whose date Seoul Bus relied to work- tried to have it banned, saying that Yoo required their express permission to use the information about the buses. The public made their objections known, arguing that the information in fact belonged to them. The governments soon relented, and an app sensation was born.

For many Koreans, it was inspiring to see a student preparing for Korea's notoriously tough university entrance exams find the time to create an app. The moral seemed to be that whoever you were, and whatever your background, you could develop and make money from these programs.

Another app that's been clocking up big sales is Facial Recognition Physiognomy. Tapping into the old belief in assessing people's character through their faces, this app lets users access facial shots saved in their photo album then breaks them down into five areas. From this, it divines insights into what the future holds for him or her. In a country where fortune telling remains a popular pastime, the physiognomy app has been a big hit.

As anyone who’s spent time in Korea will tell you, delivered food is a staple of the local diet. Little surprise, then, that apps have appeared to cater to this demand, too.

Apps like Delivery Box and People of Delivery provide locations and phone numbers for chicken places, pizzerias, and a host of other take-out eateries. The apps offer access to menus and coupons that are only available through online orders, and even keep tabs on how long it’s been since the order was placed. More than 30,000 establishments across the country have signed up with these “delivery apps,” and more are doing so every day.

While catering to specific local needs, apps such as Delivery Box are also creating brand new experiences and new business opportunities. This, in turn, is creating a self perpetuating cycle of profit: As more innovative apps appear, more people want to buy iPhones.

Within just two months of iPhones and apps going on sale in Korea, the amount of online data used by Koreans more than doubled. Today, Korea’s iPhone users log an average of 442 MB per month, 44 times higher than regular cell phone holders. This exponential growth has had a positive knock-on effect to the economy. In the first quarter of this year, there were 6,689 job notices in the mobile communication and software sectors, up 51 percent from the same period a year ago. Between December 2009 and February 2010, there were also 1,325 companies newly registered in the publication, video, broadcasting and optional service provision sectors, an increase of 39 percent year-on-year. This vast increase, of course, coincided with the introduction of iPhone and the App Store in Korea.

According to KT, the Korean telecommunication company that brought the iPhone to Korea, the mobile data market could jump by 4.5 trillion won (US$3.8 billion) over the next three years. The paid contents market could rise by 1.9 trillion won over the same period, KT estimated.

From a country that held out against the iPhone longer than most, its arrival has been nothing short of revolutionary. Korea may not have been an early adopter of apps, but it’s a major player now.
source:korea.net