Upon officially becoming the chief of South Korea’s leading telecom company KT, Koo Hyun-mo on Monday vowed independent and future-oriented management, getting rid of the previous chairman title for his role in an indicative gesture. Koo, who was formerly head of KT’s customer and media division, officially received the green light as the firm’s new chief executive officer and president during a shareholders meeting in Seoul. The shareholders also approved the removal of the

LG Electronics has decided to drop plans to highlight its flagship smartphone brand G Series as part of efforts to turn around its struggling mobile device business, according to industry sources Friday. The company has reportedly decided to ditch the brand name for premium, mass-market models, according to sources. Instead it will start giving separate names for each model. The decision was made public at a meeting between the company and mobile carriers in South Korea. Since launched

South Korea’s biggest companies Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have decided to lower the pay raise for employees this year, according to industry sources Friday. Samsung’s management and representatives of the employees have agreed on a 2.5 percent increase in base salary. However, depending on personal performance evaluation, the rate will vary. Samsung granted a pay raise of 3.5 percent in 2018 and 2019. The lower increase this year reflects growing uncertainties in

LG Display said Thursday it aims to complete its new organic light-emitting diode panel manufacturing plant in Guangzhou, China, soon and has deployed 290 engineers from here. The engineers flew on a chartered Korean Air flight after getting entry permission from Chinese authorities. They will stay at a quarantine facility prepared by the company for a certain period of time. All of them have tested negative for COVID-19. LG Display had planned to start operating the Guangzhou fab within

South Korean internet giant Kakao announced Wednesday that its co-CEOs -- Yeo Min-soo and Joh Su-yong -- will serve another two-year term. The decision was approved at its annual shareholders meeting held in the southern resort island of Jeju. “Kakao’s mission for the next 10 years is to make continuous renovation and evolution to minimize inconvenience of people,” Yeo said in the statement. “The company will also take the lead in resolving various kinds of social iss

Sudden shift to remote working upon coronavirus pushes local businesses to test solutions

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest memory chip producer, said Wednesday it has started shipping the industry's first DRAM modules made using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology. Samsung said it has shipped one million units of 10nm-class (D1x) DDR4 (Double Date Rate 4) DRAM modules that were produced with the technology. "The new EUV-based DRAM modules have completed global customer evaluations," the company said in a release. "EUV technology reduces repetitive step

Internet traffic in March has increased 13 percent over January this year as people spend more hours online under the strain of the COVID-19 outbreak, according to an ICT Ministry report released Tuesday. The ICT Ministry met with telecommunications industry officials to discuss the increased internet usage and measures to prevent potential network failures. Previously Netflix had said it would cut its traffic by 25 percent on networks across Europe to prevent interruptions of service, consid

Affiliates of Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics will send a total of 430 engineers to Vietnam in order to support their plants’ operations there, as the Vietnamese government has decided to exempt Korean staff from its two-week quarantine policy, according to industry sources Tuesday. Samsung Display will dispatch 180 engineers via a chartered flight from Asiana Airlines to Bac Ninh in northern Vietnam on Saturday, a source said. The engineers will stay in a quarantine facility e

Korean telecommunications firm KT has teamed up with ministries here to develop an artificial intelligence-based health care system that could track the novel coronavirus spread, the company said Tuesday. In the research project led by the ICT Ministry and Ministry of Interior and Safety, KT will offer cellular data, which can be used to generate maps that could allow authorities to understand how populations move, as well as how the virus spreads. The data will only be used in a closed datab

Samsung Electronics is shutting down one of its factories in Brazil as the novel coronavirus is rapidly spreading across the Latin American country, according to the company on Tuesday. Samsung is closing the smartphone and home appliance manufacturing facilities in Manaus in the north of Brazil from Tuesday through Sunday in support of the Brazilian government’s efforts to contain the virus spread, the company said. Another factory in Campinas, in the state of Sao Paulo, is running a

Samsung Electronics Co. on Tuesday introduced the industry's first all-in-one power management integrated circuits (PMIC) for wireless earbuds. The South Korean tech giant said its MUA01 and MUB01 PMICs will allow companies to manufacture true wireless stereo (TWS) devices with "greater flexibility." "Samsung was able to integrate up to 10 discrete components into one, including switching chargers and discharge circuits, enabling the PMICs to occupy less than half the space co

As the Indian government has decided to close all nonessential services across the country until the end of March amid the coronavirus scare, South Korea’s largest companies will temporarily shut their plants operating in India, according to the firms on Monday. Samsung Electronics will halt the production of its smartphone production facility in Noida, about 25 kilometers southeast of New Delhi, from Monday through Wednesday in line with the Indian government’s order. The Samsu

With the Galaxy Z Flip, my past month was full of curiosity: how will the next-generation flip phone change my mobile life? In short, using Z Flip was exciting, although I am still unconvinced it is because it provided more practical convenience. First with trivial things, flipping the device back and forth with the right thumb, which made a “thud” sound, was truly satisfying, in a nostalgic sense. It reminded me of the plastic flip phones that I had used until the early 2000s.

Samsung Electronics Co. edged out Apple Inc. to take third place in the global mobile application processor (AP) market last year, a report showed Monday. Samsung, which makes Exynos chipsets, had a 14.1 percent share of the global mobile AP market in 2019, up 2.2 percentage points from a year earlier, according to data from industry tracker Counterpoint Research. Apple settled for fourth place after its market share declined by 0.5 percentage point to 13.1 percent last year, data showed.