Tech companies foresee further sales falls as pandemic continues

Tech giant’s Q1 profit ups 3.4% on-year, but foresees further sales falls in Q2 as pandemic continues

Korean internet network operator SK Broadband has been continuing support for online classes upon sudden demand during the novel coronavirus pandemic, the firm said Tuesday. SK Broadband is currently the content delivery network provider for Educational Broadcasting System, a public broadcasting organization that provides online classes. SK Broadband previously increased the network capacity for EBS from 300 megabits per second to 1 terabit per second. Recently, the company added 2 Tbps to th

Revenue from 5G, media services rises, sales of roaming and security-related services decline

LG Electronics will release its new flagship smartphone Velvet on May 15 in the Korean market only, the company announced Tuesday. Nicknamed the “water droplet phone,” the LG Velvet marks a design departure for the firm. The triple camera module on the rear, including the 48 million-pixel lens, has been designed to resemble water droplets. The new device also features a 6.8-inch organic light-emitting diode display trademarked as FullVision with a 20.5:9 aspect ratio, Qualcomm&rs

South Korea’s Science Ministry on Monday said that it will inject 211 billion won ($170 million) into space research to help the nation’s space industry produce key parts of launch vehicles and satellites. The Ministry of Science and ICT’s “Space Pioneer” research project passed a feasibility study Monday, which approved the investment of 211 billion won from 2021 to 2030. The ministry will provide 58 billion won in the launch vehicle area and 137 billion won i

Samsung Electronics has adopted Elsa, the main character from Disney’s hit “Frozen” movies, as the exterior design of its flagship wind-free air conditioners, the company said Monday. The “Frozen 2” edition, only for the wall-mounted type, offers two exterior panels including the one with Elsa on it and the original version, allowing customers to change the panel design as they wish. The collaboration has been announced ahead of the Children’s Day holiday

SK hynix pledged Friday it will support contractors by ensuring early payments to help minimize the negative impact of the novel coronavirus spread. The company unveiled its plan to utilize 130 billion won ($105 million) from its co-growth fund for those in financial difficulty in front of Fair Trade Commission Chairperson Joh Sung-wook who visited its corporate campus in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. SK hynix also highlighted that it is paying around 600 billion won to its contractors four t

LG Electronics said Friday it will hold an online launch event for its upcoming flagship Velvet smartphone on May 7. The South Korean tech giant released a video invitation on YouTube, which included the date, time and an online link. The 15-second clip highlighted the water drop design of the flagship model.  It shows water droplets in white, gray, green and red, to represent the product colors slated for the Velvet phone.  Putting much weight on the design factor, the phone l

LG CNS announced Thursday that the company has introduced a facial recognition payment system using cloud server and blockchain technology. The Korean company’s new payment system uses a kiosk equipped with artificial intelligence specialized in recognizing facial biometrics to identify customers. The payment system then proceeds with payments by accessing customers’ account data encrypted in the cloud server. The company said the AI-based payment system is much more convenient th

The Ministry of Science and ICT on Thursday held an online conference to match local information and communication technology startups with investors. The event, titled “Untact IR” in reference to the trend for non-face-to-face contact, is a weekly online conference that has been hosted by the ministry since April 9 and is designed to increase exchanges between investors and companies amid the viral outbreak. During the three-hour online conference, local firms promoted their busi

Chipmaker forecasts cuts in memory sales for smartphones, but strong demand for servers amid social distancing trend

Anticipating lower demand on COVID-19 impact, Apple, Samsung, LG offer less expensive devices with high specs

South Korea’s electronics industry is gearing up for a surge in demand in the post-coronavirus era, with some experts predicting it as early as the second half of this year, industry sources said Tuesday. Experts from the semiconductor, display, telecommunications and battery sectors gathered Tuesday at an event hosted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry to discuss how to prepare for a post-coronavirus market. Attendees agreed on the need for preemptive measures to respond

Korea’s major telecom firms are gearing up to commercialize an ultrafast millimeter-wave 5G network this year, starting with the business-to-business sector, according to industry sources Monday. The next-generation 5G network uses mmWave technology to transmit large data packets at faster speeds. In theory, on the 28-gigahertz band the network speed could reach 20 gigabits per second. Samsung Electronics announced that it has tested a high-frequency 5G network station, confirming that