As South Koreans are generating more digital footprints thanks to the country’s powerful digital infrastructure, managing one’s online legacy following death is becoming a thorny issue for family members and online service providers. Digital legacy refers to personal data including texts, pictures and video clips that a user leaves behind in cyberspace. “We remove a deceased user’s ID on request of a bereaved family but the surviving members cannot access other personal data including passwords,

Samsung Group, the world's largest smartphone maker, is close to an agreement to acquire Novaled AG, a German maker of materials used to light up smartphone and television screens, said two people familiar with the transaction.          An agreement for the South Korean company to buy Novaled for more than $200 million may come as soon as this week, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. Novaled is ased in Dresden, Germany.           The neg

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest smartphone maker, dethroned Apple Inc. as the most profitable phone maker by posting the biggest operating income during the second quarter, also becoming the sector’s most profitable vendor, industry data showed on Monday.According to the latest data by Strategy Analytics, Samsung became the world’s most profitable handset vendor in the second quarter of the year with $5.2 billion in operating profit for its handset division.Apple, on the other hand,

Mobile handsets sold in South Korea were more expensive than anywhere else last year as high-priced smartphones accounted for a larger portion of mobile devices sold in the country, data showed on Monday.The average selling price of a mobile phone stood at US$415 in the country last year, compared with the world average of $166, and marked the highest among countries surveyed, according to the data compiled by research firm Strategy Analytics.The average selling price of a mobile phone in Japan

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest smartphone maker, dethroned Apple Inc. as the most profitable phone maker by posting the biggest operating income during the second quarter, also becoming the sector's most profitable vendor, industry data showed on Monday.According to the latest data by Strategy Analytics, Samsung became the world's most profitable handset vendor in the second quarter of the year with US$5.2 billion in operating profit for its handset division.Apple, on the other han

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest smartphone maker, posted a record shipments in the second quarter of the year, data showed on Friday.According to the data compiled by research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung Electronics shipped a record 76 million smartphones in the second quarter, compared with 69.4 million in the previous quarter.The South Korean smartphone maker also continued to dominate the global smartphone market in terms of market share, with its stake in the April-June per

SK Innovation Co., the holding company of South Korea's top refiner SK Energy Co., said Friday that it has returned to profit in the second quarter from a year earlier thanks to good performance by its refinery unit.Net income came to 271 billion won (US$243.6 million) in the April-June period, compared with a net loss of 238.4 billion won a year ago, SK Innovation said in a regulatory filing.Sales, however, fell 10.7 percent to 16.85 trillion won in the period, while the company posted an opera

LG Electronics will be holding a global launching ceremony for its G2 smartphones in New York City.LG’s latest brainchild will be on display on Aug. 7 at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City near Central Park, the company said, with invites sent out to more than 500 media outlets. “We decided the importance of the North American market and the strength of the American carriers were good enough reasons for us to decide on New York,” said Ken Hong, a spokesperson for LG Electronics.LG reportedl

LG Electronics seemed to be headed toward a solid recovery, with second quarter sales brightening significantly on the back of strong performances in air conditioners and mobile handsets.Sales for the company based on consolidated statements rose 10 percent from last year and 8 percent from the previous quarter, while operating profit surged 37 percent compared to the first quarter, the electronics heavyweight said in a regulatory filing. “It was a difficult year, with the business environment f

LG Display, the world’s top liquid crystal display maker, said that it would invest more in installing production lines for organic light-emitting diode panels. At a meeting with reporters on Monday at the firm’s industrial complex in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, LG Display CEO Han Sang-beom said the firm would reinforce its OLED business by completing OLED production lines in the complex by late next year. “In the long run, LG Display will put more priority on the OLED business than the LCD busines

Samsung Electronics Co. will host its first global developers’ conference later this year, showcasing its hardware and software in products including mobile phones and Web-connected televisions.The three-day event will take place in San Francisco starting Oct. 27, according to a teaser posted on a Samsung Web page. The site invites developers to “create what’s next” by signing up.The event is intended to further distinguish Samsung from Apple Inc., its biggest competitor in the market for smartp