Apple captures 79% of global smartphone profits last year

Apple Inc. captured 79.2 percent of global smartphone profits last year, according to the latest research by Strategy Analytics on Wednesday, highlighting the US technology giant's ability to maximize pricing and minimize production costs. The global smartphone industry was estimated to have posted total operating profits of $53.7 billion last year, with Apple's operating profit standing at $44.9 billion, the research showed.Apple's Iphone (Yonhap)Apple's operating profit margin stood at 32.4 pe

March 8, 2017

Google to add more languages to AI translation system

Google Inc. said Tuesday that it will add more languages to its new artificial intelligence translation system and significantly improve quality and reduce errors of services offered.In November, the US Internet giant announced that Google Translate has been switched to a new system called Neural Machine Translation, an end-to-end learning framework that learns from millions of examples.A person trying out Google Translate on his smartphone (Yonhap)"Over the next couple of weeks, these improveme

March 7, 2017

Cisco to step up research team for Korea-targeted security threats

Bret Hartman, chief technology officer of the security business group of Cisco, Tuesday said his company is in the process of enhancing its research team for security threats, specifically targeting Korean businesses and organizations amid the recently escalating threats to the country. Cisco has a research team of over 250 experts on information security, data science and hacking, known as Talos, which detects and defends from more than 200 million attacks on a daily basis. “We do not currently

March 7, 2017

China denies new licenses for Korean games over THAAD: reports

China has reportedly stopped issuing new service licenses to South Korean games in an apparent retaliation against Seoul’s latest preparations to install a US missile defense system in Korea.　　According to Korean media outlets Tuesday, the Chinese government informed local game publishers earlier this month that it would no longer issue licenses — which a company needs in order to service a game in China — for Korea-made games.　The measure is “likely related to Korea’s deployment of the Terminal

March 7, 2017

Line Friends to open first character store in US

Line Friends, the character merchandising unit of Naver-owned mobile messenger Line, will open its first official store in the US at Times Square in New York City in July, the company said Monday.The upcoming store, spanning 430 square meters, will be located on 1515 Broadway, which houses the renowned “Lion King” musical.It will be the first-ever large-scale Asian character brand store to open in the US and will also commemorate the one-year anniversary of Line’s public listing on the New York

March 7, 2017

Samsung predicted to invest $12.5 billion in chips

The world’s largest memory chip maker Samsung Electronics is expected to make the biggest investment in the global semiconductor market this year, a market research firm said on Tuesday. According to the US research firm IC Insights, Samsung Electronics’ capital expenditure on semiconductors this year is expected to be 14.5 trillion won ($12.5 billion), 11 percent higher than last year’s investment. The Korean tech giant is slated to complete the world’s largest chip complex in Pyeongtaek, with

March 7, 2017

R&D center for rechargeable batteries opens in southern Korea

A research and development center for rechargeable batteries opened at a state-run university in Ulsan on Tuesday.The Battery R&D Center at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, located 414 kilometers southeast of Seoul, will focus on making future battery cells for smartphones, small information technology devices and automobiles. The Battery R&D Center opened at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology on March 7, 2017. (Ulsan National Institute of Science and T

March 7, 2017

Toshiba informs SK hynix of new plan to sell stake in memory chip business

Japan's Toshiba Corp. has informed SK hynix Inc. of its new plan to sell stakes in its memory chip business, the South Korean company said Monday.SK hynix submitted a non-binding bid last month to acquire a stake in Toshiba's chip business. The logo of SK hynix (Yonhap)In a regulatory filing, SK hynix said it will make an announcement when it decides to make a final bid. In January, Toshiba said it would sell a roughly 20 percent stake in its memory operations as it struggles with multibillion d

March 6, 2017

Samsung Galaxy S8 revealed to partners at MWC

Samsung Electronics’ upcoming smartphone Galaxy S8 received a favorable response from its global partners after the company unveiled it to them during the Mobile World Congress last week, according to local news reports. During the four days from Feb. 27, the Korean tech giant reportedly disclosed its prototype Galaxy S8 to its partners including telecom operators around the world at Hotel Porta Fira, which is located near the Fira Gran Via where the Mobile World Congress took place. (Samsung El

March 6, 2017

SK Innovation set to expand EV battery capacity

SK Innovation Co., the country's top oil refiner, said Monday that its board of directors has approved a proposal to double the company's electric vehicle battery production capacity, in order to meet growing demand.The proposal calls for the construction of two EV battery production lines, which will churn out EV cells with a combined 2 GWh, larger than its current 1.9 GWh capacity.  SK Innovation's electric vehicle battery plant in Seosan, South Korea (Yonhap file photo)The construction of the

March 6, 2017

LG to upgrade G4, V10 with latest OS

Korean smartphone maker LG Electronics said Saturday it will update its two smartphones G4 and V10 with the latest operating system.“We plan to offer the upgrade of the operating system with Android 7.0 for the V10 in the second half of this year and for the G4 in the third quarter,” the company said in its statement.  V10 smartphones in a photo provided by LG Electronics Co. (Yonhap)The schedule applies to phones sold in South Korea. Consumers in the global market will be informed later.The G4,

March 5, 2017

[Health-tech Korea] Tomocube’s light microscope enables realtime, 3-D observation of live cells

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles highlighting South Korea’s promising start-ups in the emerging sectors of digital health care and next-generation medical devices. This is the third installment. – Ed.DAEJEON — A medical device startup born from an applied physics lab at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology is out to introduce a next-generation 3-D microscope that uses light to observe living cells in real time.Founded in 2015, Tomocube has developed a new hol

March 5, 2017

LG to update G4, V10 with new operating system

LG Electronics Co. of South Korea said Saturday it will update two of its smartphone models -- the G4 and V10 -- with the latest operating system (OS), reversing its earlier decision.　It cited the “respect for consumers‘ rights to choose.”　LG plans to offer the upgrade of the OS with Android 7.0 for the V10 in the second half of this year and for the G4 in the third quarter. The schedule applies to phones sold in South Korea, with consumers abroad to be notified of a separate schedule later.　The

March 4, 2017

LG Electronics unveils new VR headset prototype at US conference

LG Electronics has unveiled a prototype of a new virtual reality headset, developed in partnership with US-based PC gaming giant Valve, at the ongoing Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Valve announced earlier this week that LG Electronics will be showcasing a new head-mounted VR display device designed to deliver a “high fidelity, next generation VR experience” at Valve’s booth at the GDC 2017 which ends Friday.Though details remain limited, LG’s new VR headset is presumably a PC-base

March 3, 2017

Consortium on autonomous driving to be launched soon

More than 12 South Korean businesses across industries will gather to launch a consortium on autonomous driving later this month in order to expand collaboration for the fledgling industry. According to Hong Yun-seog, head of the Autonomous Vehicle Center under the Korea Transportation Safety Authority on Friday, 12 or so local companies have agreed to join the consortium that will offer each participant opportunities to exchange information on autonomous driving and cooperate on actual projects

March 3, 2017

Reservations pile up for LG G6

LG Electronics’ latest flagship G6 smartphone seems headed for success, with many consumers queuing up to test the new Android phone. According to local mobile carriers Friday, a rising number of consumers are applying to test the newest LG smartphone at experimental zones set up by telecom shops since Thursday, when they began to accept reservations for the smartphone.  Consumers try the G6 smartphone by LG Electronics at an experimental zone in an LG Uplus shop in Seoul. (LG Uplus)Among the th

March 3, 2017

Nexon invests in connected play company PlayFusion

South Korean online game giant Nexon said Thursday that it has forged a strategic partnership with connected play company PlayFusion, which specializes in bringing games to life by merging them with toys.The partnership came in the form of Nexon investing in PlayFusion. Details of the investment deal were undisclosed.Together with PlayFusion, the Tokyo-based company plans to introduce a wider variety of character merchandise and accessories based on the virtual characters and worlds of its flags

March 2, 2017

[MWC] 5G will breathe new life into devices

BARCELONA -- The four day journey of this year’s biggest tech event, the World Mobile Congress, wrapped up on Thursday, attracting 110,000 visitors from around the world to see the latest technologies and solutions presented by 2,200 companies. This year’s MWC in Barcelona, Spain, showed how companies have moved forward from a year ago, and gave a clearer shape to 5G-enabled devices. While the MWC in 2016 focused on the speed of 5G, this week’s event showcased how new services can be realized ba

March 2, 2017

NCSoft unveils first VR game at US conference

South Korean game company NCSoft on Thursday unveiled its first virtual reality game based on its hit online PC game “Blade & Soul,” at the ongoing Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. “Blade & Soul Table Arena” is a real-time strategy game featuring the characters from NCSoft’s original role-playing game “Blade & Soul.” “Blade & Soul Table Arena” (NCSoft)The Korean game maker introduced the new VR game as a partner to the US-based VR headset maker Oculus. It was included as one of 20 up

March 2, 2017

Naver, Line unveil new AI-powered digital assistant platform

South Korean internet giant Naver and its mobile messaging subsidiary Line Corp. unveiled a new artificial intelligence-powered voice assistant platform Wednesday, emerging as a new Asian rival to forerunners in the field such as Amazon, Google and Facebook.Line’s Chief Executive Takeshi Idezawa introduced a set of new AI software tools to power its AI online assistant Clova that responds to voice commands in Korean and Japanese, during a keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

March 2, 2017