[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics said on July 28 that sales of the curved-screen Galaxy S7 Edge made up more than 50 percent of its total flagship S7 sales in the April-June period. The Korean tech giant didn’t reveal the specific sales figure of the S7 phones during the conference call on the day. Industry watchers estimate a combined 270 million S7 and its Edge variant phones have been sold in the first half of this year since their March launch. Running on the upbeat mood, Samsung has also

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics said on July 28 it has shipped about 90 million handsets in the April-June period with smartphones making up more than 80 percent of the total. Samsung’s second-quarter smartphone shipments are estimated at about 72 million units, almost doubling its archrival Apple’s iPhone shipments of 40.4 million units during the same period.The Korean tech giant unveiled the sales figure in a conference call after announcing its second-quarter earnings earlier in the day.

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics said July 28 that its operating profit increased 18 percent on-year to 8.14 trillion won (US$7.19 billion) in the April-June period on the back of strong sales of the firm’s smartphones, the Galaxy S7 and its Edge variant in particular.Quarterly revenue increased 5 percent to 50.94 trillion won from a year earlier. Samsung’s IT & Mobile Communications division, in charge of the smartphone business, posted a whopping 4.32 trillion won operating profit, up from 2

[THE INVESTOR] The world’s memory sector is sizzling as more global chipmakers are vying to take the upper hand in the development of a more advanced vertical, or 3-D NAND flash memory chip.First mass-produced by Samsung Electronics in 2013, the 3-D NAND memory, which stacks cells vertically inside for the sake of space efficiency, has gone through a technical makeover in the past three years.Samsung Electronics’ V-NAND memory chipThe first generation chip has 24 layers of cells while the second

[THE INVESTOR] LINE, the Tokyo-headquartered mobile messenger operator, said on July 27 that the company’s operating profit improved in the April-June period thanks to strong sales in its ad and media content businesses.Announcing its first earnings result on the day since its IPO in Tokyo and New York this month, the company said it logged 8 billion yen (US$75.74 million) in operating profit, up from an operating loss of 2.4 billion yen in the second quarter of last year. It also recorded 33.9

[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics has narrowed its operating profit margin gap with archrival Apple, with the figure reducing to the lowest-ever 7.62 percent in the second quarter. This is the first time that the gap has narrowed to a single-digit percentage point between the world’s top two smartphone-makers. Koh Dong-jin, chief of Samsung Electronics‘ mobile business unit, holding Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge phones. Samsung ElectronicsAccording to its earnings guidance, Samsung posted 8.1 trillion

[THE INVESTOR] All eyes are now on who will take the reins in the upcoming era of organic light-emitting diode, which is expected to bring a generational change to mobile devices and the whole IT sector. The smartphone OLED realm has been a stronghold of Samsung Display whose market share reached 97.7 percent in the Jan-March period, according to market research firm IHS.Among the runner-ups in the segment are LG display of South Korea and AUO of Taiwan whose market share stood at 0.9 percent an

[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s display maker LG Display saw its operating profit drop 91 percent on-year in the April-June period, due largely to fierce competition in the global display market. The Seoul-headquartered company posted operating profit of 4.4 billion won (US$3.88 million) while its revenue came in at 585 billion won, down 13 percent compared to the same period in 2015.The TV and smartphone displays together account for more than half of the quarterly revenue -- 39 percent and 27 per

[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s display manufacturer LG Display announced on July 27 that it would invest around 2 trillion won (US$1.80 billion) to build manufacturing facilities for plastic organic light-emitting diode displays, a type of flexible display mostly used for mobile devices like smartphones. The company will add the new facilities with the monthly production capacity of 15,000 sheets of the sixth-generation plastic OLED -- measured 1,500 millimeters by 1,859 millimeters -- at the firm

[THE INVESTOR] Korea's internet giant Naver is expected to have maintained a sturdy profit growth in the April-June period thanks to its robust online advertising business, according to market reports. The Pangyo-headquartered Internet firm will likely post 270 billion won (US$237.50 million) operating profit in the second quarter, up 50 percent from the same period in 2015, while its revenue will increase to 983 billion won, up from 937.3 billion won in the first quarter, according to research

[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s leading mobile carrier SK Telecom has seen its share price jump to 232,000 won (US$204) on July 26, a record high since March 2 when the firm’s stock price came in at 234,000 won.Despite the failed merger and acquisition deal between its subsidiary SK Broadband, which offers IPTV services, and cable TV network operator CJ HelloVision, the stock price is on the rise since July 21.SK Telecom’s head office in Seoul. / SK TelecomThe Fair Trade Commission, the nation’s an

[THE INVESTOR] Online game developer Nexon said on July 26 that the number of downloads for the global version of its mobile role-playing game “HIT” has exceeded the 3 million mark since its debut less than a month ago. First released in Korea in November 2015, the global version was launched in 140 nations, excluding China and Japan, on July 7. The mobile app has been included in the top 10 best-selling paid mobile apps in Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Vietnam. Nexon has recently been in the

[THE INVESTOR] SK Telecom announced on July 26 that it is officially withdrawing the merger plan between its IPTV unit SK Broadband and the nation’s No. 1 cable TV operator CJ HelloVision. The announcement comes after the Fair Trade Commission, the state antitrust regulator, disapproved the 1 trillion won deal on July 18, citing monopoly concerns that could further strengthen SK Telecom’s dominant market position in the highly competitive paid TV market. “SK Telecom has notified CJ HelloVision t

[THE INVESTOR] Korea has decided to opt for ATSC 3.0, a technology standard in the US for ultra-high definition broadcasting, over the European standard DVB-T2, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said July 26.Most of the TVs made by Korean TV makers including Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are based on the European standard, a relatively outdated technology compared to the US counterpart.Samsung Electronics’ 105-inch UHD TV / Samsung ElectronicsAs a result, many of those wh