LG Electronics on Tuesday announced its preliminary earnings for the second quarter of this year, beating forecasts by market watchers over concerns about sales falls during the COVID-19 outbreak. According to the earnings guidance, LG is expected to have posted 12.8 trillion won ($10.7 billion) in revenue and 493.1 billion won in operating profit for the April-June period. The figures were down 17.9 percent and 24.4 percent, respectively, from a year earlier. The second-quarter operating

Technology July 7, 2020

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday announced its earnings guidance for the second quarter, which hinted at an earnings surprise despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on major products. The company forecast it would post 8.1 trillion won ($6.8 billion) in operating profit for the April-June period, up 22.7 percent on-year and 25.6 percent rise from the previous quarter. But the second-quarter revenue is estimated at 52 trillion won, declining 7.36 percent on-year and 6.02 percent on-quarte

Technology July 7, 2020

Samsung Electronics will provide 100 percent performance-based bonuses to the employees of the semiconductor division next week, industry sources said Friday. The world’s biggest memory chip provider is planning to give its workers a half-year bonus, dubbed “target achievement incentives” based on their performances, which could be a maximum of 100 percent of their monthly salary. While the employees of the chipmaking unit are reportedly said to receive bonuses that are eq

Technology July 3, 2020

After benefiting from the growing non-contact market in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak in the first six months of this year, chipmakers are again faced with a bearish outlook for the remaining half of the year due to estimated falls in chip prices. In the third quarter, there are predominant forecasts that say the prices of both DRAM and NAND flashes will decline, leading to a slower growth of the overall memory market. According to market tracker DRAMeXchange, the fixed price of DDR4 8

Technology July 3, 2020

SK hynix announced Thursday it has started mass producing the industry’s fastest DRAM solution HBM2E, 10 months after the chipmaker completed its development in August last year. According to the company, the HBM2E supports over 460 gigabytes per second with 1,024 inputs/outputs based on the 3.6 gigabit-per-second performance of each pin. It is the fastest DRAM solution in the industry, which enables transmission of 124 full-HD movies (3.7GB each) per second. The density is 16GB, mor

Technology July 2, 2020

Samsung Electronics plans to hire as many as 1,000 specialized experts in chip design and artificial intelligence by the end of this year, the tech giant said Wednesday. The company has already employed around 500 experts with master’s degrees and doctorates in semiconductors and AI in the first six months of the year, as part of its preparations for future technologies and businesses. It is planning to hire 500 more experts as part of accelerating a move towards the future, amid grow

Technology July 1, 2020

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong on Tuesday visited Samsung’s semiconductor equipment subsidiary SEMES, surveying the very foundation of the chip industry amid the country’s ongoing efforts to reduce dependence on Japan. The Samsung heir discussed mid- and long-term strategies of SMES, founded in 1993 as a subsidiary building manufacturing equipment for semiconductor sand displays, and took a tour of the equipment production line located in Cheonan, South Chungcheon

Technology June 30, 2020

Amid growing efforts to reinforce the domestic chip materials, parts and equipment industry by relying less on Japanese imports, South Korean chipmaker SK hynix said Tuesday it will support three new partner firms and co-develop products for the next two years. The memory chip manufacturer said it has selected Semics, LKN and Evertech Enterprise as innovative tech firms and has signed agreements at its headquarters in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. “Despite the difficulty that we are end

Technology June 30, 2020

As most of my naturally-curly-haired peers would agree, there is nothing more annoying than coiled bangs. They make you look less composed and childish, not to mention adding a few pounds to your face. So I jumped at the chance to try out Dyson Corrale straightener, the latest hot item from the cordless masters. Almost immediately, I found it extremely convenient to use during busy mornings to fix by bangs, without having time to wash and dry my hair. The gadget is usually placed on the cha

Technology June 29, 2020

The latest forecasts about Korean technology companies’ profits in the second quarter suggest they have at least avoided the worst-case scenario amid the protracting COVID-19 pandemic, due to the semiconductor industry’s outperformance, according to industry sources on Sunday. The newest figures released by local stock brokerages show that Samsung Electronics is estimated to report around 53.6 trillion won ($44.5 billion) in sales and 6.4 trillion won in operating profit for the A

Technology June 28, 2020

Unlike tech-savvy readers who have jumped over to e-books in the mobile era, there are people who still feel nostalgia for paper books, and some still love going to secondhand bookstores. One of the biggest draws of visiting a secondhand bookstore is probably the joy of accidentally discovering a rare treasure in the piles of dusty, faded old books, especially one that is out of print.  At a secondhand bookstore in Gaebong-dong, Guro-gu, Seoul, books are priced by weight. That’

Culture June 27, 2020

It’s been nearly a year since Japan imposed restrictions on its exports to South Korea of key high-tech materials used in chipmaking, the economic pillar of Asia’s fourth-largest economy. At the time, Korea panicked. But one year on, Korea has made significant efforts to reduce its dependence on Japan, which is a close neighbor but also a rival on many fronts, by diversifying its import channels and localizing its materials technologies. On July 1 last year, Japan abruptly moved

Industry June 25, 2020

Samsung Electronics announced Wednesday that Sebastian Seung, an artificial intelligence expert, will head its AI research arm, strengthening its prowess in the sector. The computer engineering professor at Princeton University will lead Samsung’s 15 R&D centers in 13 countries, including Korea, and seven AI centers, to develop future technologies. The scholar joined Samsung as chief research scientist in 2018 soon after Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong announced his plan to recruit to

Technology June 24, 2020

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong on Tuesday highlighted the importance of timing again during his visit to the consumer electronics headquarters in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. Lee met with Kim Hyun-suk, CEO of the consumer electronics business, and other top executives to discuss artificial intelligence and internet of things strategies, sales expansion of the premium lineup and reinforcing online businesses. “The business environment is testing our limits,” Lee said.

Technology June 23, 2020

Despite a steady growth in the number of 5G mobile network subscribers who pay higher bills than with LTE services, South Korea’s plan for its full-fledged commercialization seems to be facing delays, according to industry sources Tuesday. The so-called “real 5G,” which requires operation of the higher-frequency bandwidth of 28 gigahertzes to make data processing 20 times faster than the 4G LTE, is still not ready for commercialization, due to unexpected circumstances such a

Technology June 23, 2020