LG Electronics’ potential plan to discontinue the smartphone business would have ripple effects on jobs in its overseas production bases, persons working for LG outside Korea said. 　 According to workers assembling LG phones at the company’s Brazil factory, local employees are paying keen attention to the circulating rumors about the Korean vendor’s plans for the struggling phone business. “The latest reports about LG’s sale of its smartphone business have made u

Apple will open its second Apple Store in South Korea this Friday in a move to expand its presence in the main turf of archrival Samsung Electronics. Called Apple Yeouido, the second Apple Store is located on the L1 floor of IFC Mall in Yeouido, western Seoul, which is the epicenter of finance, politics and broadcasting. It is about the same size as the company’s first store, in Garosugil in southern Seoul, which opened in January 2018 and has become a must-visit spot for Apple fans

South Korea's ICT ministry said Wednesday it made over 15,000 new public Wi-Fi service zones available across the country and in buses last year, bringing the total locations with free public Wi-Fi to over 57,000. The Ministry of Science and ICT said the public can access free Wi-Fi in 28,132 public locations, such as bus stations, public facilities and parks, and also in 29,100 buses. By region, there are 2,529 public Wi-Fi locations in Seoul, with 4,358 locations in the surrounding Gyeonggi

Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday it has started mass-production of a power-efficient solid state drive (SSD) for data centers that also boasts enhanced security solutions. The South Korean tech giant said PM9A3E1.S is the industry's first data center-use SSD product based on sixth-generation V-NAND chips. It supports the standards of Open Compute Project (OCP), an organization that sets hardware and software standards in data centers. Samsung, the world's leading memory chip producer, sa

Clubhouse, an audio social media app that has generated buzz worldwide, has been gaining popularity in South Korea as popular celebrity users, from K-pop artists to politicians, join the invitation-only platform. The iPhone social media app, in which users enter rooms to chat with one another by voice, reached 195,000 downloads in South Korea as of Feb. 16, according to mobile analytics company App Annie on Tuesday. While the app, developed by US-based startup Alpha Exploration Co., ranked at

Samsung Electronics announced on Tuesday it is launching the advanced image sensor ISOCELL GN2 with a more true-to-life auto focus function that makes the microchip operate similar to human eyes. ISOCELL is Samsung’s image sensor brand developed by its System LSI Business. Samsung, which is on a path to expand its presence in the system-on-chip market, including the image sensor sector, has been increasing efforts to bolster its product lineup. The newest ISOCELL GN2 boasts a new 5

Governmental ministers from multiple countries gathered on Tuesday at the Connected for Shared Prosperity forum co-hosted by Huawei and GSMA to mark the opening of Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2021. Speakers, including ministers from Spain, Portugal, Hungary and more, agreed that the global economic recovery is increasing instep with greater enforcement of pandemic control measures. They also agreed that reductions in emissions, more jobs, and more initiatives in facilitating prosperity ar

South Koreans are estimated to have spent an hour on average on the mobile YouTube app a day last month, data showed Tuesday. The average time a local mobile user spent on the video streaming app in January stood at 30 hours and 34 minutes, or 59 minutes a day, according to mobile app tracker WiseApp, based on data of Android and iOS users over the age of 10 in the country. WiseApp said there were 40.41 million mobile users who used the YouTube app at least once last month, with those aged 50

LG Display Co., a major display panel maker in South Korea, said Tuesday it has developed a large-size oxide-based thin film transistor (TFT) for a digital X-ray detector (DXD) as the company aims to foster its diagnostic imaging business for future growth. LG Display said its oxide TFT -- which comes in sizes of 43 centimeter× 43 centimeter and 35cm×43cm -- is the industry's first large-size oxide TFT for DXD use. A TFT acts as a switch to individually turn each pixel on or off

Samsung Electronics Co. said Tuesday it will provide security updates for Galaxy mobile devices at least four years after their initial release. The world's largest smartphone maker said more than 130 models released after 2019 are subject to its regular security updates. They include Galaxy S10, S20 and S21 series, as well as Samsung's foldable, smartphones. "Samsung worked closely with its operating system and chipset partners, as well as over 200 carriers around the world to ensure t

A bill from South Korea’s antitrust regulator aimed to govern dominant e-commerce platforms is still pending in the National Assembly due to a tug of war between two government bodies -- the Fair Trade Commission and the Korea Communications Commission. In the meantime, platform operators and local customers have been raising their concerns, viewing the regulatory move as excessive market intervention. A survey conducted by Korea Startup Forum showed Monday that around 61 percent of res

LG Electronics Inc., a South Korean tech firm, may scrap a plan to develop a smartphone with a rollable display, industry observers here said Monday, amid growing speculation that the South Korean tech giant will ditch its money-losing mobile business. LG reportedly told its parts suppliers, including Chinese display maker BOE, to put the rollable smartphone development project on hold, according to industry sources. The parts makers may request compensation from LG in the future for their deve

Samsung faces unprecedented power outage at chip production line in Texas, sends engineers to support recovery

South Korea's app market ONE store has drawn attention as a possible alternative to Google's Play store as local app developers worry about increasing costs over the US tech giant's decision to expand its 30 percent commission fee to all in-app digital goods purchases later this year. ONE store, a subsidiary of top wireless carrier SK Telecom Co., launched the app market in 2016 as a smaller rival to the Play store on Google's Android operating system. The app market has since steadily grown,

SK hynix’s operating profit for the first quarter this year is expected to hit 1.36 trillion won ($1.2 billion), up 70.6 percent on-year, Shinhan Investment said Friday. The brokerage also forecast in its report that the company’s revenue during the three month period could go up 14.2 percent on-year to reach 8.2 trillion won. The on-year growth was mostly attributed to the increasing price in dynamic random-access memory products, or DRAM products, and the recent turnaround in ma