Apple Watch may offer ovulation tracking in Korea

Apple is seeking ways to make the cycle tracking application featured in its latest Apple Watch series available for users in Korea. The US tech giant recently reached out to South Korean authorities to ask for a regulatory sandbox approval, according to industry sources Tuesday. Apple Korea inquired with the Ministry of Science and ICT about the process of using a regulatory sandbox system, a measure that temporarily exempts the enforcement of regulations on new products or services for a certa

Jan. 17, 2023

Samsung unveils new high-end image sensor for smartphones

Samsung Electronics unveiled Tuesday its latest 200-megapixel image sensor, the Isocell HP2, with significantly improved resolution and upgraded picture quality for premium smartphones. The new image sensor packs 200 million 0.6-micrometer pixels in a 1/1.3-inch optical format, a sensor size that is widely used in 108MP main smartphone cameras, according to Samsung. This enables the latest high-end smartphones to create higher resolutions, while minimizing the camera bumps on the devices. &ldquo

Jan. 17, 2023

[Herald Interview] After Sanofi deal, ABL Bio seeks to license out oncology treatment candidates

Korea Herald correspondent SAN FRANCISCO -- ABL Bio will release the results of early stage clinical trials regarding the company's oncology treatment candidates in this year, with hopes in license-out opportunities. “ABL Bio expects to introduce favorable clinical data regarding the company’s oncology treatment candidates,” ABL Bio CEO Lee Sang-hoon said on Thursday during an interview held on the sidelines of the 41th JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. ABL

Jan. 16, 2023

Chaebol leaders join Yoon's trip to UAE, WEF

Top executives of Samsung, SK and Hyundai are accompanying South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on his state visit to the United Arab Emirates as well as to the World Economic Forum, as part of an official business delegation aimed at boosting economic cooperation. Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun are among the chiefs of 100 South Korean companies making up the business delegation, according to industry source

Jan. 15, 2023

Global chipmakers to invest over $300m in AI-designed chips this year

The world’s leading semiconductor companies will likely spend more than $300 million in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) to help design semiconductors faster this year as a global chip shortage continues to put a strain on demand, Deloitte Korea said Friday in its report. According to the report, global chipmakers such as Samsung Electronics, Intel and Qualcomm are expected to invest this amount in AI design tools for chips. By growing 20 percent annually for the next three

Jan. 13, 2023

SK pharmteco pushes back IPO plan until 2024

SK pharmteco, a California-based contract development and manufacturing organization under Korean conglomerate SK Inc., is expected to postpone its initial public offering at least until 2024 due to market volatility, top officials from the firm and SK affiliates said Wednesday. The year of 2024 will be “the earliest possible period” to reconsider the company's stock market debut, said SK pharmteco CEO Joerg Ahlgrimm. SK's CDMO unit initially planned to go public on Korea

Jan. 13, 2023

S. Korea to have 30% of businesses utilize AI technologies by 2030

South Korea plans to have 30 percent of local companies adopt artificial intelligence technologies by 2030 to beef up competitiveness of local industries, the industry ministry said Friday. The target marks a sharp rise from the current estimate of 1 percent, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. "In a mid-and-long term perspective, (the government) plans to proactively find and foster future industries and seek a great transformation that can fundamentally revamp the cou

Jan. 13, 2023

SKT, Joby aim to speed up Korean-style UAM

South Korea’s largest wireless carrier, SK Telecom, and US aviation company Joby Aviation said Thursday they advanced a strategic partnership for a boost in the commercialization of Korean-style urban air mobility, or UAM. Joby Aviation recently invited officials from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Korea Institute of Aviation Safety Technology, and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute to its headquarters in San Jose, California. Joby Aviation formed a strategic p

Jan. 12, 2023

LG Electronics’ OLED evo collects awards at Visual Grand Prix

LG Electronics revealed on Thursday that its OLED evo received the highest honor, the VGP Gold award, in the 50-to-60-inch and under-45-inch OLED TV categories at the Visual Grand Prix 2023. The product also received the Critics Award in the visual category. The VGP is an annual audio-visual (AV) awards event held by Japanese AV media outlet Ongen Publishing. Devices are judged by experts and electronics dealers based on technological qualifications and consumer satisfaction. Regarding the LG OL

Jan. 12, 2023

Samsung Biologics to enter antibody-drug conjugate market

By Shim Woo-hyun Korea Herald correspondent SAN FRANCISCO -- Samsung Biologics pinpointed antibody-drug conjugates, a next-generation technology in cancer treatment, as one of its future growth drivers as the South Korean biotech giant unveiled its business strategies and investment plans Wednesday during the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, the health care industry’s largest investment gathering of the year. “We are going into ADC. We will have a manufacturing plan

Jan. 12, 2023

[KH Explains] Apple’s move to ditch Korean displays met with skepticism

Having announced its plans to make more chips on its own, Apple, the world’s largest consumer electronics company by revenue, is now reportedly seeking to use its own displays whose supplies are heavily reliant on South Korea’s Samsung Display and LG Display. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Apple is planning to start using its own micro light-emitting diode displays on its smartwatches as early as the end of 2024, possibly with the aim to reduce its reliance on Korea-made displays.

Jan. 12, 2023

Lotte Biologics pledges $3b to beef up production at home

SAN FRANCISCO -- Lotte Biologics will invest around $3 billion by 2030 to build new CDMO plants in South Korea, Lotte Biologics CEO Richard Lee announced during the company’s presentation at the 41st JPMorgan Healthcare Conference held in San Francisco, Tuesday. The investment will go toward building three plants, with a combined manufacturing capacity of 360,000 liters, 120,000 each, according to Lee. About $1 billion will be needed per plant, Lee estimated. The company will start to buil

Jan. 11, 2023

[From the Scene] Samsung spurring innovation from Silicon Valley

SAN JOSE, California -- At the heart of Silicon Valley, home to world's largest tech giants, stands a landmark 10-story building in the shape of a three-layer stack of NAND flash memory chips. The symbolic building is the headquarters of Samsung Electronics Device Solutions America, which oversees the production of semiconductors in the United States -- a market that takes up more than half of the global chip demand. Opening the US headquarters to Korean media on Saturday, Sue Kim, the he

Jan. 11, 2023

[Herald Interview] Yuhan aims for bigger presence in US

SAN FRANCISCO – South Korean pharmaceutical giant Yuhan is seeking to increase cooperation with researchers and biotechnology firms based in the US, with hopes to benefit from the nation’s abundant human resources and research opportunities. “Yuhan might be a leading pharmaceutical company in South Korea, but in the US market, it is still an underdog,” said Yuhan USA CEO Yoon Tae-won during an interview held on the sidelines of the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, the la

Jan. 11, 2023

[Photo News] Future mobility in style

Hyundai Motor Group said Wednesday that the automaker has received 11 accolades from the 2022 Good Design Awards in the US. The South Korean auto giant took home three awards in robotics design with future mobility concepts that combine in-wheel motors, steering, suspension, braking system and environmental sensors into one structure.

Jan. 11, 2023

Samsung to unveil Galaxy S23 on Feb. 1 in San Francisco

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday sent out invites to its annual unpacking event for its new flagship Galaxy devices that will take place in San Francisco at 10 a.m. on Feb. 1. Entitled “Galaxy Unpacked 2023: Share the Epic,” the event will be held in person for the first time in three years since the pandemic. It will also be livestreamed from Seoul through Samsung’s newsroom and homepage, as well as its official YouTube channel, the officials said. “A new era of Galaxy i

Jan. 11, 2023

Biotech firms flock to JPMorgan Healthcare Conference

Korea Herald correspondent SAN FRANCISCO -- The 41st Annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference kicked off on Monday in San Francisco. This year, three South Korean companies will give presentations, while many others will hold meetings to attract new partners and investors. Around 550 presenting companies have descended on the Californian city, in addition to thousands of investors and biotechnology executives from around the world. From Korea, Samsung Biologics, Lotte Biologics and SD Biosensor h

Jan. 10, 2023

[Photo News] Lighter plastic for cars

LG Chem said Tuesday it has supplied metal-replaceable plastic to Mitsubishi for the Japanese carmaker’s three SUV models – the Outlander, Delica D:5 (pictured) and RVR. Using the lighter material, the company said, the plastic fender is about 4 kilograms lighter than the previous metal alternative of the same size, improving the fuel efficiency of the vehicles.

Jan. 10, 2023

[Herald Interview] ‘There will be always more demand for chips, displays’

LAS VEGAS – The prolonged economic recession and inflation is drawing a grim outlook for semiconductor and display industries, even for top players such as South Korea’s Samsung and LG. But Merck Electronics CEO Kai Beckmann says that companies will persist, as demand for chips and displays will continue to grow, in the long run. “The electronics industry, ever since it developed, has had ups and downs. It is kind of a normal phenomenon in our industry. The good thing is that,

Jan. 9, 2023

[KH Explains] Is Samsung’s robotics ambition taking shape with Rainbow stake?

Samsung Electronics recently purchased a sizeable stake in Rainbow Robotics, a local humanoid robotics company, for 59 billion won ($47 million), offering a glimpse into the South Korean tech giant’s robotics ambitions that are still under wraps. Earlier this month Samsung purchased some 1.94 million shares of Rainbow Robotics, one of the handful of robot companies that make bipedal human-like robots, becoming the second-largest shareholder of the company. Following the news, shares of t

Jan. 9, 2023