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, signaling a challenge to its biggest competitor Samsung Display. At a meeting with reporters at the firm’s industrial complex in Paju on Monday, LG Display CEO Han Sang-beom said the firm would reinforce its OLED business, hinting that the firm was pondering the addition of OLED production lines at LCD factories now under construction in

The mayor of Lyon on Friday expressed his hope for his French city and the Korean business community to enhance their business and cultural ties based on their respective areas of strength. “Lyon, which maintains its historical and cultural heritage, can be playing a key role in helping the Korean economy achieve innovation and success,” said Mayor of Lyon Gerald Collomb who concurrently holds the post of Senator. He was speaking at a forum organized by the French-Korean Chamber of Commerce and

The Korea Communications Commission said Thursday it would slap fines and suspension penalties on the nation’s three telecoms for having offered undue subsidies to attract customers.“The KCC decided to penalize the three mobile carriers ― SK Telecom, KT Corp. and LG Uplus ― for granting financial subsidies to the customers exceeding 270,000 won ($240), the maximum allowed by the law,” said the regulator in a press release. The three telecoms gave out illegal subsidies for up to 72 percent of the

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest chipmaker, showcased its new solid state drive lineup Thursday, proclaiming the beginning of the terabyte era in the SSD market. “After accelerating the growth of the SSD market with last year’s launch of entry-level, high-performance SSDs, we are introducing much faster SSDs with up to 1TB capacities, offering consumers a wider range of choices,” said Jun Young-hyun, executive vice president at Samsung’s memory sales and marketing department. “Samsung co

A well-known economics professor advised Samsung Group on Wednesday to open communication with those who are critical of the nation’s top conglomerate. Participating at a regular weekly meeting of the top executives of Samsung at its headquarters in Gangnam, Kim Sang-jo, a professor at Hansung University in Seoul, gave a one-hour lecture titled “Economic Democratization and Samsung,” with the subtitle “Samsung and Society.” “Vice chairman and heir apparent of the conglomerate Lee Jay-yong has to

GS Group chairman Huh Chang-soo urged Wednesday top executives of the group’s affiliates to look to the future and not to miss an opportunity for growth. “As the market changes at a rapid pace, the group should not miss growth momentum through making investments at the right time,” said chairman Huh, presiding over a meeting for the third quarter of the fiscal year. To make a successful investment, he said “a thorough business risk analysis and preparation measures for different outcomes of busi

A senior manager from one of the world’s leading data storage business firms said Tuesday that demand for hard disk drives would continue to rise despite increasing demand for smaller, faster solid-state drives. In the current digital age when every minute, 30 hours of video are posted on YouTube; 100,000 are Twitter; 6 million posted on Facebook; and 20 million photos are uploaded to Flickr, according to leading data storage firm Western Digital Corp, the importance of storage technology cannot

The new president of Merck Korea, an affiliate of one of the world’s largest biotechnology and chemical firms, said at his inauguration event Monday that his company would invest more in the organic light-emitting diode business in Korea.“Technological development takes place so fast in Korea. That is the reason why we are here doing business rather than any other places,” said Michael Grund, the newly appointed president of the chemical firm. The 45-year-old president said the firm “will enforc

Hyundai Motor Group said Monday the company and its affiliate Kia Motors won five Red Dot Design awards, international design awards given to applaud innovative designs, in four categories. The mother company grabbed awards in three categories ― “Event Design,” “TV, Film, Cinema and Animation” and “Corporate Films” for the outstanding designs of a display hall named “Vision Hall” at one of its training centers, and video arts being displayed at the hall titled “Who am we?” and “Mobius Loop.”Kia

LG Chem said Monday it would start supplying lithium-ion battery packs this month for Germany-based SMA Solar Technology, currently the world’s biggest solar inverter producer. The battery packs will be used in an energy storage system called Sunny Boy Smart Energy developed by SMA for household use. As the world’s first wall-mounted storage system, the inverter and battery pack have been combined for maximum space and energy efficiency, LG Chem said. The inverter, co-developed after years of re

More than half of Samsung customers said that they would continue to choose the same brand rather than a competitor, while only less than a fourth of Apple customers said they would do so, a report showed.Securing the top spot three times in a row since last year in a report called Technology Brand Preference Index, Samsung marked a record rating of 58.7 and also became the only company out of 20 tech firms that scored over the 50-threshhold.The index, released by market research institute Strat

Dongbu HiTek, a Seoul-based semiconductor maker, said Thursday that it started mass production of 2-megapixel CMOS image sensors for Chinese smartphone manufacturer BYD Microelectronics.As the demand for smartphone components has increased recently with more mobile phones being equipped with the 2-megapixel image sensor on the front, it is expected that shipments of the sensors will likely double this year compared to last year, the Korean firm said in a press release. The smartphone sensor is u

Now that the fiercely competitive high-end smartphone market is well saturated, Samsung Electronics is pushing into the mid-range mobile phone market with plans to roll out stripped-down smartphone models.According to the IT Testing and Certification Laboratory, the state-run testing and certification agency for electronic devices, Samsung’s Galaxy S4 Mini (SHV-370D) has acquired certification for it to be sold unlocked, meaning that the phone will not be tied to a certain mobile network so that

Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning Choi Mun-kee met with Johann Schneider-Ammann, the head of Switzerland’s Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, on Monday to discuss Korea’s creative economy initiative. Welcoming the 25 delegates from the Alpine nation, Minister Choi sought much advice from them. “I would like to learn the know-how of maintaining stable economic growth despite the sluggish world economy and even outperforming those in other European nations,”

Amid expectation on the rise for Samsung Electronics’ smart watch, the world’s largest electronics firm filed a patent on its smart watch last week in Korea and the United States, The Korea Herald has confirmed.The world’s largest electronics firm applied for the patent on the wearable gadget it calls “Samsung Gear” on June 21 at the Korean Intellectual Property Office, and filed at the United States Patent and Trademark Office on June 27.It is said the name for the watch will be the official on

Apple’s iPhone users in Korea were found to be less loyal to the smartphone than its rival’s followers, according to a report released Wednesday.According to a consumer report by DIGIECO or KT Economics and Management Research Institute, 53 percent of 416 survey respondents using an iPhone said they would not continue using Apple’s smartphone line. The result is based on the survey conducted on 3,763 smartphone users aged 13 to 69.For Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S smartphone line, 35 percent of

A troupe of Samsung Group in charge of finding new business sectors, launched three years ago, has been dissolved for allegedly failing to produce tangible results. All executives and high-ranking officials mobilized to the task force team Tuesday were confirmed to have returned to the group’s affiliates where they previously worked.“The team was disbanded as of July 1 as it had fulfilled its duties in laying the groundwork for five new projects,” a Samsung official said. “The projects have been

KT, the second-largest mobile carrier in Korea, announced Monday that it would provide its customers twice as many services as usual from July through October. “In order to repay our customers for their support, we will provide double the amount of services,” said Pyo Hyun-myung, president of the mobile business unit at the mobile service provider, at the launching event of the promotion. More data, more membership benefits and easier access to customer service are among the five major services

Hackers claiming to be from hacktivist group “Anonymous” once again wracked the nation by launching fresh cyber attacks against 10 government agencies, local dailies and private firms on Monday, less than a week after similar attacks on the websites of Cheong Wa Dae, the presidential residence, government offices and political parties.The websites of local newspapers Yeongnam Ilbo and Gyeongnam Ilbo; Cyber Dokdo, a government-run promotion website for the easternmost islets of Dokdo; and the con

Russia is one of the most difficult markets to penetrate due to its unique business environment, prioritizing trust among partners over work, verbal promise than contract, and price over quality. TRC Korea has been supporting firms which hope to introduce their products and services and gain ground in what seems to be an impervious market for 12 years. As patience and constant efforts are important in doing business in Russia, Kang Nam-young, president of the consulting firm, emphasizes the impo