Something About Korean Technology

I just read an article that said Sony, in competing with Apple, will introduce a line of cell phones that will offer MP3 capability. They expect to have these phones selling by the second half of this year. To the Western World this may seem like new technology. Thing is, Korea has offered MP3 capabilities on it's cell phones since at least the Spring of 2004. Monday, Wednesday and Friday night I teach 8 High School girls. Every one of them has a "hand phone." 5 of them have built in digital cameras and 3 of them have MP3 players. In Korea they are developing cell phones that are embedded with a computer chip to allow passengers to simply swipe the phone on a pad when getting on a bus or subway. Korean cell phone companies have said they want to expand this to include debit card transactions. Clearly Korean cell phone technology is a head of the pack.