[Courtesy of SKtelink]
A smartphone for young hard-working students, called "God of Study", has been released in a tech-savvy country, providing all the basic features such as making phone calls or sending text messages but no data communication features or WiFi.
With no data communication capabilities, the budget phone will help students concentrate on their study, SKtelink, an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) telecom company, said on its website on Monday.
MVNO is a wireless communications service provider which uses the wireless network infrastructure of other companies to provide services at reasonable prices. SKtelink uses the infrastructure of SKT, South Korea's top mobile carrier.
God of Study carries a price tag of 198,000 won (175 US dollars). It features a five-inch display with an 800-megapixel rear camera. Experts from an online IT community Clien said the new smartphone would be a variant of "Blade L5 Plus" released by China's ZTE.
Consumers reacted cynically. A Clien user called "2228" wrote: "If a student cannot control him or herself to the point that needs to be cut off from the internet… I don't think that phone will be useful." Another user "Tomie", said, "Who would buy that kind of stuff? There are decent phones that cost less than God of Study."
According to London-based Global Mobile Communications, South Korea's distribution rate of smartphones stood at 85 percent. Many old people and young students still use non-smartphones. Parents want their children to focus on their study.
Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
