South Koreans Love Phablets, and Spend Lots on Mobile Games

In a worldwide sample of nearly 100,000 iOS and Android devices, seven percent were “phablets,” the jumbo-phone/mini-tablet hybrid. But in South Korea, 41 percent of such devices are phablets, according to Flurry Analytics.

Growth in the South Korean mobile installed base does seem to be slowing down as it reaches saturation, Flurry said. Connected devices grew 17 percent in the past year in South Korea, versus 81 percent in the rest of the world, as measured by Flurry.

South Koreans have a notable tendency to buy local devices. As of August 2013, 85 percent of devices owned in South Korea were manufactured there, Flurry said. Samsung had 60 percent market share.

Flurry released the South Korean stats on the occasion of a distribution partnership with SK Planet’s T Store, the South Korean app store, which is integrating Flurry analytics into its new developer center for usage by its 37,000 app developers. Flurry said it already tracks 33 million devices in South Korea.

SK Planet told Flurry that 68 percent of its revenue comes from game-related spending, at an impressive rate of $5.27 per user per month (that’s about double the U.S. average monthly user revenue for all apps, not just games). Another interesting tidbit is that a third of SK Planet’s in-app purchases are paid for with gift certificates.