South Korea has cemented its position as one of the world's most advanced smartphone markets, as the number of subscribers topped 20 million.
The data from regulator KCC means some 40% of the country's population – and 80% of the “economically active” population – are now smartphone users, Reutersreported.
SK Telecom captures half of the market, with 10 million smartphone subscribers, while KT has 6.8 million and LG Uplus has 3.3 million.
The number of smartphone users has exploded from just 810,000 at the tail-end of 2009, and 7.2 million as of the end of last year.
South Korean operators - which are also at the front of the pack with their LTE ambitions - are among the few in Asia to have public plans to deploy LTE smartphones.
The devices are helping the telcos to overcome the issues caused by an otherwise saturated market.