Samsung begins mass production of industry's fastest mobile storage

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest memory chip and smartphone maker, said Tuesday it has begun mass-producing the industry's fastest mobile storage. The 512-gigabyte (GB) embedded universal flash storage (eUFS) 3.1 is in mass production for use in flagship smartphones, according to Samsung. The latest product delivers three times the write speed of its previous mobile memory, the 512GB eUFS 3.0, with performance of 1,200 megabytes per second (MB/s), it added. Samsung's 512GB eUFS

March 17, 2020

Korean-made virus test kits being sold overseas

South Korean biotech firms are exporting their novel coronavirus test kits as countries scramble to stem the rapid spread by isolating infected people, industry sources said Tuesday. Seegene, Kogene Biotech, Solgent, SD Biosensor and other companies have all received permission from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) to sell their products in South Korea, as well as in overseas markets. The products that have received permission mostly use real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR

March 17, 2020

[Newsmaker] River of Grace Community Church sprays saltwater into worshippers’ mouths

River of Grace Community Church in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, is alleged to have sprayed saltwater into the mouths of people attending church services on March 1 and 8, which may have contributed to the cluster infection of at least 46 people with the novel coronavirus. “It is very unfortunate. As we were reviewing the CCTV footage from River of Grace Community Church, we found that members of the congregation were sprayed saltwater into their mouths one-by-one because of misinformati

March 16, 2020

Kakao founder Kim Beom-su disposes of Kakao’s first headquarters building

Kakao founder and Chairman Kim Beom-su sold a building located in Seoul’s Yeoksam-dong in Gangnam-gu for 38.2 billion won ($31.2 million) last year, according to local reports Monday. The building was used as Kakao’s first headquarters. Kim purchased the building for 29 billion won in 2011 together with Chun Yang-hyun, executive chairman of Cocone. In 2013, Kim bought Chun’s share in the building for 17 billion won and became the sole owner. Kakao’s headquarters moved

March 16, 2020

Samsung Foundry Forum in Silicon Valley postponed over pandemic

Samsung Electronics’ annual forums on its semiconductor foundry business strategy for this year have been postponed due to the new coronavirus pandemic, the tech giant said Monday. The company posted the notice on its forum registration website. The first event of the forums was to be held in California’s Silicon Valley on May 20 and was supposed to kick-start the annual forum series that takes place worldwide, including in China, Japan and Germany. “The forums are pushed

March 16, 2020

Coupang named one of most innovative firms in world

Coupang, South Korea’s leading delivery service provider, has been named one of the world’s most innovative companies by a US market researcher in recognition of the firm’s e-commerce technology and logistics service.  According to an announcement by US-based business media brand Fast Company on Tuesday, Coupang was ranked second on its list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2020 for the Asia Pacific region. Korea’s biggest tech firm Samsung Elec

March 13, 2020

Tech giants put off handset debuts over pandemic

Major tech giants have postponed the launch of their latest smartphone models as the global novel coronavirus outbreak has been classified as a pandemic, according to industry sources Thursday. China’s Huawei Technologies was scheduled to announce its flagship P40 in Paris on March 26, but has decided to cancel the event as the World Health Organization has now labeled the fast spread of the virus as a pandemic. As of Thursday morning, France reported 2,281 COVID-19 infections and 48 d

March 12, 2020

LG Electronics launches its 2020 TV lineup

LG Electronics Inc. on Wednesday announced the global launch of its 2020 TV lineup, led by 14 new OLED models with upgraded artificial intelligence (AI) features, to expand its presence in the premium TV market. LG said its CX series 4K OLED AI ThinQ TVs will be available this month in South Korea and the United States, followed by markets in other regions. The 55-and 65-inch CX models will go on sale in South Korea on Wednesday, while the 77-inch version will be launched next month, it a

March 11, 2020

Samsung plans to release 5G smartphones in over 40 countries this year

Samsung Electronics Co. plans to release its 5G smartphones in more than 40 countries this year, a company official Wednesday, as the South Korean tech giant seeks to further expand its global presence amid the rise of the next-generation mobile service. Samsung's 5G smartphones were sold in 22 countries last year, but the number of countries that the world's largest smartphone maker will sell its 5G mobile devices may double this year as many mobile carriers around the globe prepare to start

March 11, 2020

SK Telecom establishes digital health care joint venture with local PEF

SK Telecom Co., South Korea's leading mobile carrier, said Wednesday it has established a digital health care joint venture with a local private equity fund (PEF) after spinning off its health care business unit. Invites Healthcare Co. will aim to drive growth of the health care industry using its advanced information and communication technology (ICT), according to SK Telecom. Newlake Alliance Management, a local private equity firm, will serve as the largest shareholder of the joint venture

March 11, 2020

Samsung No. 3 vendor of wearable devices in 2019: report

 Samsung Electronics Co. was the third-largest vendor of wearable devices last year, a market report showed Wednesday, amid soaring global demand for wearables. Samsung shipped 30.9 million units of wearable devices last year, more than doubling from a year earlier, according to the latest report from market tracker International Data Corp. (IDC). The South Korean tech giant took a 9.2 percent share in the global wearables market in 2019, up 2.3 percentage points from a year earlier, I

March 11, 2020

Samsung, LG eye Japan’s 5G smartphone market

South Korean tech firms said Tuesday they are gearing up for the commercialization of 5G services in Japan with plans to roll out latest smartphone models as SoftBank Telecom is set to launch operations this month. Samsung Electronics is likely to launch the Galaxy S20 lineup, introducing 5G phones for the first time in Japan. SoftBank will be the first Japanese mobile carrier to launch 5G services on March 27, with other Japanese carriers like NTT and KDDI are also planning to launch soon.

March 10, 2020

Samsung unveils new solid-state battery tech

Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology said Tuesday unveiled its study on longer-lasting all-solid-state battery technology for the first time in Nature Energy, one of the world’s leading scientific journals. All-solid-state batteries, utilizing solid electrolytes, support greater energy density allowing larger capacities, and are safer than current lithium-ion batteries using liquid electrolytes, according to the research arm of Samsung Electronics. The team focused on overcoming th

March 10, 2020

Samsung Display asks Vietnam to approve entry of its staff: source

Samsung Display, one of the world's leading display panel makers, has called on Vietnam to permit the entry of engineers for the renovation of its plant in the Southeast Asian country, an industry source said Monday. Vietnam stopped issuing visas for visitors from South Korea on Feb. 29 and has been putting people flying in from Korea into a 14-day quarantine period at designated facilities to check for COVID-19. "Samsung Display has asked Vietnamese authorities to issue visas for some 7

March 9, 2020

Samsung’s Vietnam operations may be affected by entry ban

Samsung Group’s affiliates in Vietnam could take a blow from the entry restrictions on travelers from South Korea imposed by the local government due to the coronavirus spread, according to industry sources Monday. Samsung Display was planning to dispatch around 700 engineers, including some from its subcontractors, to support the ongoing ramp-up at its plant for small and midsized organic light-emitting diode panel modules in Bac Ninh, northern province of Vietnam. The OLED modules pr

March 9, 2020

LG Chem unlikely to spin off EV battery biz this year

LG Chem, a leading lithium-ion battery supplier, seems unlikely to push ahead with plans to spin off its battery business this year, a news report suggested Monday. The report said the company’s task force team responsible for the battery spinoff had concluded last week that it would not be profitable due to various business hurdles and difficult market conditions. The South Korean battery maker said last year in a regulatory filing that the company was seeking to enhance the competit

March 9, 2020

[Herald Interview] Virus data from Korea ‘to be of great value globally’

South Korea is the country with the highest number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus outside China, accounting for about 6.9 percent of the 105,586 infections worldwide. Since the first case was reported Jan. 20, Korea has tested 196,618 people and confirmed 7,382 cases, according to the latest official tally published Monday. Its death rate stands at 0.7 percent. In discussing some of the most frequently asked questions about the new virus, Harvard epidemiology professor Marc Lipsitc

March 9, 2020

Global smartphone market likely to contract over rampant coronavirus

Amid the ceaseless spread of the novel coronavirus around the globe, the world’s smartphone market is forecast to witness a contraction in the first half of the year, according to various market reports on Sunday. US-based Counterpoint Research said in its latest report that the global handset market is estimated to shrink 5 percent in the first quarter alone. Strategy Analytics said the volume of smartphone shipments worldwide would decline 10 percent from its initial forecast largel

March 8, 2020

S. Korea to spend W616b on space projects in 2020

South Korea plans to spend around 615.8 billion won ($516.5 million) on space development projects this year as the country gears up to launch its first domestically-built rocket and next generation satellites, the science ministry said Sunday. The investment is a 6.4-percent increase from 2019, with the earmarked budget to be focused on building up the country's capability to use space more effectively and bolster related industries, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT. Of the total

March 8, 2020

SKT, Singtel, AIS set up esports JV targeting Southeast Asia

Leading telecom companies of South Korea, Singapore and Thailand have teamed up to establish an esports joint venture targeting some 800 million Southeast Asian gamers, SK Telecom said Sunday. Under the agreement, Korea’s SKT, Singapore’s Singtel and Thailand’s AIS will each invest an equal amount of funds and share equal rights to the joint venture, expected to launch in 2020. The addition of AIS is the result of a follow-up to the partnership SKT and Singtel had agreed on

March 8, 2020