South Korea had 53.1 million mobile subscriptions at the end of 2011, more than one subscription per person in the country, according to a January 2012 report from ROA Consulting.

More telling, however, is the amount of smartphone subscriptions added during the year. The report estimated that South Korea added approximately 16.3 million smartphone subscriptions from December 2010 to December 2011. The rapid increase in smartphones led mobile data traffic to nearly double from 4,339 terabytes in December 2010 to 7,458 terabytes in March 2011.

Smartphone subscriptions and penetration in South Korea, November 2009 - December 2013:
- November 2009: 0.5 million (1.0% of total mobile phone subscriptions)
- December 2010: 7.2 million (14.2%)
- December 2011: 23.5 million (44.3%)
- December 2012: 42.8 million (76.2%)
- December 2013: 52.5 million (90.5%)

And the smartphone market shows no signs of slowing down. The firm estimates smartphones will account for more than 90% of mobile subscriptions at the end of 2013.

In the US, smartphones accounted for 38% of mobile phones in 2011. eMarketer forecasts strong growth in US smartphone users, but penetration will only reach 48.5% of mobile users in 2013.