[THE INVESTOR] Chemical and battery firm LG Chem said June 29 that its “stack-and-folding battery,” has been deployed in the world’s thinnest laptop Specter made by California-based Hewlett-Packard.First unveiled in 2013, the stack-and-folding battery is made by stacking layers of battery cells, offering more leeway in designing devices.The 13.3-inch Specter laptop boasts 10.4 millimeters in thickness.The LG Chem battery equipped in HP’s laptop model is 1.6 millimeters thick, but boasts a high d

[THE INVESTOR] Koreas online game developer Neowiz Games has launched its new mobile role-playing game “Devil Breaker: Rise,” on June 28 in 137 nations, including China, and the US.The new game title is a sequel of the “Kingdom of Heroes” released in 2013.The new game is based on a fictional story of heroes striving to take their kingdom back from a Devil troop. Players can choose a character among 100 heroes to play and each of them presents different journeys, the company said.By Kim Young-won

[THE INVESTOR] Despite its properties -- the high mobility of electrons, high strength and flexibility -- all of which are apt for use in electronic components, graphene has struggled to get a foothold in the semiconductor sector due to difficulties in current control.The major stumbling block was due to the nonexistence of what is called a bandgap, which indicates the difference between the states when electrons are not free to move (valence band) and when they are free and carry current (condu

[THE INVESTOR] Internet portal firm Naver will reportedly join the fray for artificial intelligence assistant by rolling out its own voice-recognition smart home system as early as this year.Naver has been conducting research and development projects in artificial intelligence for years, utilizing its vast amount of data, including linguistic data.Naver’s research and development center Naver Labs.Naver LabsCompared to global AI services developer like Google and Amazon, Naver is considered to h

[THE INVESTOR] Chinese Internet portal firm Tencent, which recently took over Supercell, a Finland-based developer of global hit mobile game “Clash of Clans,” is increasing its clout in the Korean online and mobile game industries. The Chinese portal services firm has invested in more than 10 game companies in the Korean market. Among the most noticeable ones are Netmarble Games, 4:33 and Party Games.The Chinese firm is also the third-largest shareholder of Kakao, the mobile messenger firm which

[THE INVESTOR] Display experts urged the Korean government to make all-out efforts to enable the nation’s display makers to maintain their lead in the market for organic light-emitting diode display, considered the future display for its flexibility and transparency.Participating in a meeting to boost the next-generation OLED industry in Seoul on June 28, Lee Jeong-ik, a chief researcher at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, a state-run research institution, said in his s

[THE INVESTOR] Tech giant Samsung Electronics’ operating profit is forecast to exceed 8 trillion won ($6.8 billion) in the second quarter of this year, surpassing previous market estimates. “The second-quarter revenue and operating profit will come in at 51.3 trillion won and 8 trillion won, respectively, beating market estimates,” said Lee Jae-yoon, an analyst from Yuanta Securities, adding that the firm’s IT and mobile communications business unit and consumer electronics business unit would s

[THE INVESTOR] US-based smartphone-maker Apple saw its presence in the global smartphone market shrink in recent months, according to a market report on June 22.Apple’s operating profit in the first three months came in at $10.8 billion, accounting for 79.9 percent of the entire operating profits earned by the global smartphone makers, according to a report released by market research firm Strategy Analytics. Apple’s iPhone 6. AppleDuring the three months, the total operating income of the world

[THE INVESTOR] The global organic light-emitting diode TV market may not be as robust as previously thought in the coming years, according to an industry report.Market research firm IHS forecast in its recent report that around 5.8 million units of OLED TVs will be shipped in 2020, down 32 percent from 8.5 million projected earlier this year.The number of OLED TVs expected to be shipped in 2019 has also decreased to 4 million, down from an estimate of 5.8 million in the previous report Models po

[THE INVESTOR] Ministers, government officials, and information technology industry leaders flocked to Cancun, Mexico to participate in the OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Digital Economy, a conference for the global IT sector, being held from June 21 to 23. The ministerial meeting is meaningful, in that participants will check the economic and social influence of the internet, based on the Seoul Declaration, adopted in Korea in 2008, and Internet Policymaking Principles in 2011, and discuss the

[THE INVESTOR] Desperate to find new future growth engines, Samsung Electronics is betting big on the Internet of Things, a network technology which connects objects with humans.The electronics giant has announced a package of plans to grow the business for the connected technology at the Internet of Things Policy Dialogue, an industry conference held at the head office of the US daily Washington Post in Washington on June 21.Kwon Oh-hyun, Samsung Electronics’ vice chairman delivers a speech und

[THE INVESTOR]   Samsung Electronics has acquired a Canada-based digital advertising start-up, AdGear, the two companies confirmed on June 21.　The Canadian firm said in a notice on its website that it has “joined Samsung Electronics.”A captured image of AdGear’s webpage.Detailed terms of the deal were not revealed. Samsung said the acquisition was aimed at beefing up its capability focused on the smart TV advertising. 　Established in 2010, AdGear has expertise in managing data and transmitting t

[THE INVESTOR] An advocacy group has raised its voice against the Ministry of the Interior, which allegedly forced tech giant Samsung Electronics to preinstall its app, dubbed Government 3.0, on the upcoming Galaxy Note model.The Green Consumer Network in Korea claimed the preinstallation of the app would cause inconvenience for consumers and reverse discrimination against the domestic smartphone-maker.“The ministry said it had consulted with Samsung to preinstall the app on the smartphone, but

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics’ fitness tracker Samsung Gear Fit 2 made an impressive debut as the first batch of the smart band up for preorders ran out in just two minutes on June 21.Samsung started to receive orders through its online store from 10 a.m. and 222 units of the wearable gadget up for sale were quickly sold out in just 2 minutes. Samsung Gear Fit 2. Samsung ElectronicsThe tech titan will start selling the Gear Fit 2 online and at retail store Samsung Digital Plaza across the n

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics reportedly lost a bid for supplying mobile application processors for Apple’s iPhone 8, which is thought to be the US-based company’s flagship model for 2017.“The mobile chip for the iPhone 8 will be supplied exclusively by Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC,” said Korean online newswire News1, quoting an anonymous industry source. TSMC is the chip supplier for the iPhone 7, which is expected to be released this year. The source said Apple saw Samsung’s A9 chips, supplie