U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday clarified his stance that he would not tackle Samsung Group’s retweets of Obama’s selfie, Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jay-yong said Saturday. “(Obama) said the selfie would not pose any problem,” Lee told reporters after a meeting between Obama and local business leaders in Seoul. The U.S. president was making a two-day visit to Korea on Friday and Saturday.The controversy began when Boston Red Sox player David Ortiz posted a picture with Obama o

SHENZHEN ― China’s Huawei Technologies, the world’s second-biggest telecommunications equipment maker, plans to groom its brand to boost its global smartphone sales.“What we need is to build our brand and credibility because Huawei’s smartphone business is still in a very early stage,” Shao Yang, vice president of Huawei’s Consumer Business Group, said Wednesday at the Huawei Global Analyst Summit 2014 in Shenzhen.The company plans to spend $300 million on global marketing in 2014, Shao told Reu

Samsung’s financial services have been suspended in the wake of a fire at Samsung SDS data center, which runs the system and stores backup data from Samsung’s financial affiliates. Samsung SDS said it blocked the server at the data center to prevent data loss. Samsung Card users appeared to be the biggest victims of the service disruption. Cash advances, online payments and text alerts were all suspended; while debit cards issued by Samsung and affiliated firms will be out of service until furth

LG CNS, a local information technology service provider, said the convergence of fast-advancing technologies would pave the way for a “smart world,” at the company’s annual IT conference in Seoul on Thursday.“The five technologies of smart devices, network connectivity, big data, clouding service and convergence of technology and industry will shape the smart world in the future,” said LG CNS chief executive Kim Dae-hoon in his opening speech.He pointed to the emergence of various smart devices

A rocky road stretches ahead for Pantech, the nation’s smallest handset maker that is struggling to stay afloat in a quickly saturating smartphone market. There are now talks of foreign companies such as Micromax seeking a stake in it, but whether this will be a blessing or a curse for the company is still up for debate. As Pantech has confirmed that several overseas companies including Indian handset maker Micromax have shown interest in the investment, concerns are rising about the matchup and

The global sales of smartphones, tablets, personal computers and video game consoles are expected to slow down starting this year as consumers are less eager to snatch up new products, according to a recent report published by Deloitte. This year, the worldwide sales of these five items are expected to reach $750 billion, stalling at around $800 billion for the next five years.This compares with the dramatic double-digit growth of the past decade, the report said. By sector, the smartphone marke

LG Electronics, the nation’s second-largest television maker, is expected to have the upper hand in the growing organic light-emitting diode television markets with a higher yield rate and better technology than its rivals, according to market analysts. DisplaySearch’s report said curved TVs are projected to hit 6 million units in 2017 in the global market, a sharp increase from 800,000 units this year. Among them, OLED TVs are set to account for 33 percent, or 2 million units, in 2017 with the

Students ended their unprecedented, 24-day occupation of Taiwan's Parliament late Thursday after receiving assurances a Chinese trade pact they see as imperiling the island's autonomy would undergo legislative review.The pact would allow Chinese and Taiwanese service companies, including banking, telecommunication and tourism firms, to operate in each other's territory. Opponents who fear it could cost Taiwan jobs or even its democracy also criticized the ruling party's attempt to push the pact

China unveiled a plan Thursday to give foreign investors greater access to its stock market by allowing investors in Shanghai and Hong Kong to trade shares on each other's exchanges.Securities regulators in China and the semiautonomous Chinese territory of Hong Kong said that the stock exchanges in both cities would be connected in a pilot program.Authorized investors in Shanghai and Hong Kong will be able to buy and sell up to 23.5 billion yuan ($3.8 billion) of stocks in certain companies each

An Australian aircraft Thursday detected what may be the fifth signal coming from a man-made device deep in the Indian Ocean, adding to hopes that searchers will soon pinpoint the object's location and send down a robotic vehicle to confirm if it is a black box from the missing Malaysian jet.The Australian air force P-3 Orion, which has been dropping sonar buoys into the water near where four earlier sounds were heard, picked up a ``possible signal'' that may be from a man-made source, said Angu

South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won asked the international community Thursday to extend support for the reunification of the two Koreas, stressing that a unified Korea will be a new global growth engine.He made the remarks during his keynote speech at the Boao Forum of Asia held in China's tropical island of Hainan. Chung is on his eight-day trip from Wednesday, which will also take him to Pakistan early next week."Our peaceful reunification will set out a novel blueprint for the future

Gunmen have demanded a ransom of 500 million pesos ($11.3 million) for the release of a Chinese tourist abducted last week from a Malaysian resort off Borneo island, a Malaysian minister said Thursday.The gunmen, believed to be Abu Sayyaf militants, kidnapped a 28-year-old Shanghai woman and a 40-year-old Filipino woman from the Singamata Reef Resort in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah on April 2.Philippine authorities believe the women were taken to the island township of Simunul in Tawi-Ta

Japanese consumers are keeping their wallets firmly closed after the first sales tax rise in 17 years, with luxury items and appliances suffering as one major department store reported a 25 percent drop in sales.The precipitous plunge comes after millions of shoppers made a last-minute dash to stores before the national levy rose to 8.0 percent from 5.0 percent on April 1, a rise that sparked fears of a drop in consumer spending in turn derailing Japan's nascent economic recovery.Like many retai

India will offer visa-on-arrival (VOA) to South Korean tourists at its major airports for their convenience starting from next week, its embassy in Seoul said Thursday.The decision was made during South Korean President Park Geun-hye's state visit to India in January to improve ties between the two nations, the Indian embassy said. Korean visitors will be able to apply for a single entry tourist visa available for one month on arrival at eight airports for a fee of US$60 or the equivalent amount

Former Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Kim Byung-hyun was traded to his hometown club in the top South Korean league on Thursday.The Nexen Heroes in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) shipped the 35-year-old submarine pitcher to the Kia Tigers, in exchange for 23-year-old left-hander Kim Young-gwang.The Tigers are based in Gwangju, a metropolitan city about 330 kilometers south of Seoul. Kim was born and raised in the city, before entering a college in Seoul and signing with the Arizona

SMEC, a local machinery and communications network provider, is scheduled to attend a machine tool show in Seoul to unveil its new products. The Seoul International Machine Tool Show, one of four global machine tool shows, opened Wednesday. The event is expected to draw 800 companies from 30 nations, along with more than 90,000 visitors. At the show, SMEC plans to unveil various new products including its 5-axis machining center for high precision and high productivity, and 9-axis multitasking m

Samsung Electronics is expected to post a slight dip in profit in the first quarter of this year. The company said Tuesday its operating profit was estimated to be 8.4 trillion won ($7.9 billion), a drop of 4 percent from a year earlier, while its sales forecast remains flat at 53 trillion won. The decline is due largely to lackluster smartphone sales, which are expected to bring the electronics giant 6 trillion won in operating profit, a decline from 6.5 trillion won from a year earlier despite

6일 업계에 따르면 국내 한 디스플레이 업체가 애플 iTV를 위한 샘플 패널을 개발 중이며, 올해 하반기에 출시될 것으로 알려진 애플 iTV는 내년에 양산 될 전망이다.  IBK증권의 이승우 연구원에 따르면, 현재 이 업체는 애플 iTV용 65인치 OLED 패널을 제작 중이며, 해당 패널은 테스트용으로 채택 여부는 확실하지 않다고 전했다. 익명을 요구한 다른 업계 관계자는 “애플 iTV는 올해 하반기 65인치, 77인치 LCD 패널로 2백만 대를 생산할 계획이었지만, 지난 10월 애플이 해당 업체에 방문해서 양산계획을 내년으로 연기했다”고 전했다.  지연된 이유에 대해 애플 TV의 콘텐츠 수급뿐만 아니라, 애플이 OLED 패널 생산을 고려하고 있기 때문이라고 전했다. “재팬 디스플레이와 샤프의 OLED TV 양산 능력이 아직 부족해서, 국내 업체가 수급하게 될 것”이라고 이 관계자는 밝혔다.   신한투자증권의 소현철 연구원은 “현재까지는 OLED TV의

Samsung is ready to join the world’s largest furniture expo ― armed with home appliances, not smartphones ― to seek fresh profit sources amid the slowing growth of its smartphone sales.Samsung Electronics is scheduled to join the Milan Furniture Fair in Italy, which opens next Tuesday, to unveil its new smart home appliances including washing machines, televisions and refrigerators. Its CEO Yoon Boo-keun is also expected to attend the event. This is the first time for Samsung to display its home

Samsung Group has pushed forward with internal restructuring of its key petrochemical units to boost competitiveness and efficiency, with the market expecting more deals involving Korea’s largest conglomerate.The latest Samsung General Chemicals’ acquisition of Samsung Petrochemical was seen as part of chairman Lee Kun-hee’s succession process for his three children.This merger, which was announced on Thursday, is said to be for the sake of Lee’s daughter Lee Boo-jin, in the view of market obser