According to the results of an online survey by the online employment Web sites Findjob and AlbaChunguk, 83.8 percent of the 2,263 university students nationwide who participated in the poll now own smartphones. This is up from 51 percent just a year ago.
The students said they use their phones for Internet chatting (32.4 percent), Internet searches (23.3 percent), watching video or listening to audio (13.5 percent) and social networking (11.9 percent).
Of the 380 students who replied that they had yet to buy a smartphone, the top reason was price (35.4 percent), followed by those citing existing mobile contracts (35.1 percent) and those who said they did not need a smartphone (16.5 percent).
Some 43.7 percent of this group answered that they would would likely purchase one within the next six months, while another 22.4 percent said they would have a smartphone within 12 months, showing quite clearly that smartphones are now considered to be necessities, not luxuries, for Korean university students.
<Translated by Todd Thacker editor@jejuweekly.com ⓒ Jeju Weekly All rights reserved>