South Korea: High-tech hothouse

With 13 million of the country's 48 million citizens living in the high-rise forests of this dense metropolis, people are constantly spying on what their neighbours or fellow subway commuters are buying. As a result, South Korea has become something of an open-air focus group for technology manufacturers, accelerating replacement cycles and a plethora of new product uses.

"If you leave home without your phone, you feel like you left an organ or a limb," said Moon Suh Park, vice president of Qualcomm Internet Services Korea. "I think the only untapped market is the kindergarten or first-grade segment."

The local embrace of technology along with an active national government, export-driven local industries, and extensive use of broadband are the key factors permitting the country to wedge its way toward the forefront of the digital revolution. While other national economies rose and fell with the personal computer industry, South Korea is shaping up as a technology powerhouse through consumer electronics.

Samsung has transformed itself from being a component supplier and contract manufacturer to a name-brand company in home electronics. Rivals LG Electronics and Pantech, which was formed from elements of Hyundai's electronics divisions, are expected to follow.

Beyond commerce, South Korea's techno-revolution has had profound social consequences on issues ranging from political and corporate corruption to school punishment. As evidenced by the popularity of the leading Web log service, Cyworld -- which counts about an eighth of the country's population as registered users -- online communication and free speech are growing despite a long history of controlled media throughout much of Asia.

The adoption of new technologies has been pushed further by a national broadband infrastructure that provided about 71 percent of the country with high-speed Internet access. That, in turn, has helped the expansion of such diverse digital phenomena as online gaming and futuristic networked homes that connect refrigerators, ovens and other household appliances to the Internet.