PYEONGTAEK, Gyeonggi Province ― Samsung Electronics, the world’s top memory chipmaker, said Thursday it would start the production of semiconductors at a new plant from the first half of 2017. The global tech giant revealed the plan during its ceremony to break ground for its new semiconductor manufacturing line in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, on Thursday.Pinning high hopes on what will become the world’s largest chip-production plant, which will churn out more than 100,000 sheets of 12-inch wafe

South Korea’s top mobile carrier SK Telecom said Wednesday that it has introduced its technological expertise for the next-generation Internet standard ― Internet Protocol version 6, or IPv6 ― in Hanoi, Vietnam.Participating in the Vietnam IPv6 Day 2015 held in the Vietnamese city on Wednesday (local time), officials from the Korean mobile network operator gave presentations on the first commercialization of IPv6 services in Korea.The SKT officials also talked about technologies and technical kn

Top executives of tech giant Samsung Electronics gathered in a movie theater to watch the Hollywood blockbuster “Avengers: Age of Ultron” in Gangnam, Seoul on Monday.The Samsung executives showed a great deal of excitement after watching the film, due largely to Samsung’s collaboration with the film’s producer Marvel to show off futuristic devices, including see-through smartphones, smart watches, and Bluetooth earpieces, used by the Avengers team.Some of those devices are said to be in the work

South Korean biometric security system developer Suprema unveiled a next-generation fingerprint reader for access control uses, such as entry to buildings, and a new open security platform Thursday. The biometric scanner, named BioStation 2, equipped with a 32-bit Coretex-A9 1.0 GHz CPU, boasts improved fingerprint recognition and data analysis capabilities ― the new fingerprint reader is three times faster in identification and four times more accurate than its predecessor.Around 1 million fing

Samsung Electronics released white-bezel ultrahigh-definition TVs in Seoul Thursday. The company said the TVs with the white frame were the first in nine years to come out in the Korean market. (Samsung Electronics)

Leading South Korean game developer Smilegate commemorated the first anniversary of the firm’s start-up incubation initiative, called Orange Farm, in Seoul on Thursday.Smilegame runs three centers to nurture start-ups ― two in Seoul and one in Busan ― that house 23 ventures in total. The business incubators are the largest among those run by private firms in Korea.Smilegate CEO Kwon Hyuk-bin“Smilegate will spare no efforts to help fledgling ventures at the incubation centers to write success sto

Despite a series of product leaks online ahead of its official debut, LG Electronics’ new marquee handset G4 featuring advanced cameras and a classy leather back wowed the audience at its launch in Seoul on Wednesday, sending an alert to its rivals ― Samsung Electronics and California-based Apple. LG Electronics chief executive Koo Bon-joon expressed his satisfaction with the latest LG phone, saying he was “confident” that LG would do well against the competitors.As announced earlier, the G4 spo

South Korea’s No. 1 mobile network operator SK Telecom discussed how to create an ecosystem for 5G technology with global firms and ventures at a forum in Seoul on Tuesday.“SKT is currently working on developing differentiated services with advanced technology to greatly improve user experience,” said Jang Dong-hyun, chief executive of the Korean mobile carrier, in an opening speech at the global ICT developer forum.“The company also plans to boost support for small-and medium-sized firms in res

U.S. wearable activity tracker-maker Fitbit released its new fitness wristband Fitbit Charge HR in Korea on Tuesday, aiming to increase its footing in the market where the smartphone penetration rate reaches around 80 percent.“(The exponential growth of the fitness wearable market in recent years) is driven by real consumer trends ― we all live increasingly busy and hectic lifestyles, and obesity, diabetes and chronic diseases are growing across most countries in the world,” Steve Morley, head o

Samsung Electronics said Monday it would work with companies including Lotte Department Store, coffee chain TOM N TOMS and restaurant chain Seoga & Cook to conduct a joint marketing campaign for wireless charging technology for Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. Wireless chargers will be installed at around 200 partner stores. (Samsung Electronics)

Chipmaker Intel Korea will collaborate with Korean tablet PC maker Mpgio and educational software developer ST&Company to tap into the tablet PC market for education in South Korea, Intel Korea said Monday.Intel Korea expressed confidence in increasing its presence in the educational tablet PC market in the domestic market. “Despite the low penetration rate of tablet PCs with 7-inch or larger displays due to phablets in Korea, Intel saw demand for educational tablet PCs continually increase,” sa

“If Steve Jobs were alive today, even he would have liked the G4.”An industry official close to the South Korean tech giant LG Electronics made the remark ahead of the official unveiling event of the firm’s flagship smartphone, the G4, showing confidence in the new marquee device.After the debuts of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge and Apple’s smart watch this month, many eyes are now on the LG G4, which will be unveiled this Wednesday in six global markets including South Korea, the U

The smart watch hype is at its peak as two of the world’s largest tech giants and archrivals ― Samsung Electronics and Apple ― step up their efforts to gain the upper-hand in a new round in a battle for the wrist.The first wearable device by Cupertino-based Apple landed in stores in nine global markets including the U.S. Australia, and Hong Kong on Friday.Even though South Korea was not included in the first group of the launch nations, the news of the Apple smart watch made headlines on many lo

SK Planet said Sunday it launched the ecommerce Website 11street in Malaysia on April 24. The South Korean online commerce operator has been preparing to launch in the Malaysian market for the past six months, after establishing joint firm Celcom Planet with Malaysia’s No. 1 wireless carrier Celcom Axiata.“The company, which has superior capabilities in online and mobile shopping businesses, will provide differentiated services for local customers,” said Kim Ho-seok, chief executive of Celcom Pl

A top executive of Samsung Electronics’ visual display business unit said Wednesday that it would further beef up its super ultrahigh-definition TV models rather than its lineup using organic light emitting diodes.Samsung released premium SUHD TVs earlier this year, which utilize a liquid crystal display coated with a sheet of nanocrystals, or often called quantum dots. The quantum dots measuring around 3 to 7 nanometers improve color accuracy and color gamut, according to Samsung. Global TV man

South Korea’s top mobile carrier SK Telecom said Thursday it is not considering any proposal to divide the organization into two bodies ― one for business and the other for investment.“SKT does not have any plan regarding the establishment of the investment entity, as claimed by many industry watchers,” said Jang Dong-hyun, chief executive of the mobile carrier, at a press conference in which he announced the new business strategy of the firm. Market analysts have long speculated that the nation

South Korea’s integrated circuit chip maker KONA I said Thursday it would participate in a project to establish smart card platforms in Sichuan Province, China. The Korean company, which produces chips and software installed on credit and public transportation cards, universal subscriber identity modules, and digital IDs, is the No.1 IC chip manufacturer in the domestic market and ranks second in the U.S. by market share. The company achieved $100 million of exports last year. “KONA I will set u

 What do hot K-pop stars, such as TVXQ, EXO and Girl’s Day, and superheroes of the upcoming Hollywood film “Avengers: the Age of Ultron” have in common? They have all been made into mobile emoticons on South Korea’s most-used mobile messenger KakaoTalk, run by Internet giant Daum Kakao.The emoticon ― a combination of emotion and icon ― started out as creative combinations of numbers, letters and punctuation marks, but have evolved into today’s animated characters moving around a mobile chat room

South Korea’s leading display panel maker LG Display posted an operating income of 734.9 billion won in the first quarter of 2015, a near eightfold increase from a year earlier and the highest level in three years, according to the company’s regulatory filing Wednesday.The company also said its quarterly sales hit a record high of 7.02 trillion won ($6.5 billion) thanks to robust sales of liquid crystal display panels for TVs and handsets.The company explained that the higher-than-expected earni

Kim Dae-hoon, chief executive of ICT solutions developer LG CNS, said the company seeks to lead in the era of Internet of Things with its service-oriented technologies.IoT is a term that describes a connected network of objects. He urged businesses to respond swiftly to the fast changing business environment in this era of connected products.  LG CNS CEO Kim Dae-hoon speaks at the 15th Entrue World 2015 in Seoul on Tuesday. (LG CNS)“LG CNS has capabilities in developing IoT platforms and systems