Major telecom companies bring logic puzzles to mobile phones in South Korea

Friday, July 18, 2008

Since July 3, subscribers of SK Telecom (SKT), South Korea’s largest mobile telecom operator with more than half of local market share, can download a variety of logic puzzles simply by typing 2777 and pressing the NATE service button on their handsets.

Titled Puzzle Paradise (Korean: 퍼즐천국), the 570-puzzle mobile gaming package will also be available to 12 million subscribers of Korea Telecom Freetel (KTF) later on this month. Puzzle Paradise was developed by A.K. Communications, Inc. in Seoul and uses all content from Conceptis Puzzles.

1500 playable mobile puzzles

Puzzle Paradise basic gaming package is priced at 3,000 Won (about $3 US) and consists of 210 Sudoku, 150 Pic-a-Pix branded as Nemologic and 210 Battleships progressively leveled from easy to hard. After playing all 570 puzzles, gamers can get additional puzzle packages at 500 Won. Each package contains 90 puzzles of the same family in easy, medium and hard difficulty levels. In total, Puzzle Paradise may be expanded to provide up to 1500 Nemologic, Battleships and Sudoku mobile puzzles.

Since most of our readers don't have an SKT phone at their disposal, here are screenshot photos showing the new SKT service (courtesy of Amoagency, Conceptis' representative in South Korea).

Seven facts from Digital Korea you probably didn't know

Mobile puzzles as well as other brain-training games are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to digital Korea. According to Tomi T Ahonen & Jim O'Reilly in their book Digital Korea: Convergence of Broadband Internet, 3G Cell Phones, Multiplayer Gaming, Digital TV, Virtual Reality, Electronic Cash, Telematics, Robotics, E-Government and the Intelligent Home, South Korea is by far the world leader in digital adoption and innovation. In a very literal sense, South Koreans are living in the near future of the digitally converging technologies from the viewpoint of the rest of the world. Here are seven facts from Digital Korea you probably didn't know:

• 90% of South Korean homes have broadband internet access. The world average is about 20%.
• 63% of South Koreans make payments using their cellphones. The world average is under 5%.
• 43% of South Koreans maintain a blogsite or personal profile online like Americans might have on MySpace or the British on Bebo. The industrialized world average is about 10%.
• Over half of South Koreans migrated their cellphones to 3G. The world average is 5%.
• 100% of South Korean internet access has migrated to broadband. The world average is about 30%.
• 25% of South Koreans have played the same multiplayer videogame.
• 40% of South Koreans have a digital representation of themselves, a so-called avatar such as Western people who use Second Life or Habbo Hotel.

Related resources

• More about Puzzle Paradise product
• SK Telecom (SKT)
• Korea Telecom Freetel (KTF)
• A.K. Communications, Inc.
• Digital Korea: Convergence of Broadband Internet, 3G Cell Phones, Multiplayer Gaming, Digital TV, Virtual Reality, Electronic Cash, Telematics, Robotics, E-Government and the Intelligent Home

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