Wearable devices becoming more popular in Korea
13-Jun-16, Business Korea
The Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning announced on June 12 that the number of wearable device users in South Korea skyrocketed from 50,237 to 510,066 between the end of 2014 and the end of April 2016.
Image: Business Korea
The calculation of the number is based on the number of SIM cards provided by mobile carriers, and thus the actual number of wearable device users in the country is likely to be greater than the announcement.
The South Korean government released a plan for promoting the growth of the domestic wearable device market, with a budget of 127.2 billion won (US$110.6 million) to be spent for the development of wearable device technology from 2016 to 2020.
Nevertheless, industry insiders are pointing out that the lack of software developers and complicated product certification procedures are still hampering the growth of the domestic wearable device market.