New cell phone boom in Korea – T kids phone
According to an article from Forbes, South Korea will be the next global hub for tech startups. Not to mention the big war between Samsung and Apple, technology field has grown tremendously in South Korea. When you buy a cell phone in Korea, an extra battery and an external charger come as a package unlike other countries where you normally have to buy an extra battery. You not only receive an extra battery with a separate battery charger as a package, but also receive a bunch of promotion gifts such as phone case, beach volley ball, etc. in order to attract more customers. The number of cell phone stores can easily outperform the number of Starbucks in Korea. By the number of cell phone stores there are in Korea, it is not an exaggeration to say that almost everyone has a cell phone in Korea.
In South Korea, you can easily watch people stuck to their cell phones watching TV, sending Kakaotalk messages, reading articles online, etc. No matter where you go in Korea, You will realize how much technology is integrated in South Korea. Since technology has become an important part of their lives, it is even common to see little children with their own cell phone devices.
A new cell phone product is coming out for kids only. This new product/service is called ‘T Kids Phone June’. Kids can wear it as a smart watch or a necklace. Parents can save about 30 contact information and kids can make phone calls by choosing a picture. That is, there is no need to know how to read. For emergencies, as soon as they press SOS button, location and alarm will be sent to their parent’s smart phones immediately.
Using a special app built for T kids June, you can also locate where your children are located in real-time. If you click a button with a map icon, it will give you the directions to get there the quickest way possible. Parents can also set a boundary within 2 km. If kids leave the set boundary, the smart phone will automatically send an alarm to their parents’ smart phones. For this service, it will cost about 8,000 KRW including 30 minutes of calling, 250 text messaging, and 100 MB data. Maybe it is worth considering since it is not so costly if you have a kid to worry about.