Samsung: chemical leak raises further doubts over working conditions
The Samsung saga involving a toxic chemical leak at its major chipmaking factory doesn’t seem to be over yet.
South Korea’s environment ministry said on Tuesday that it will investigate the incident to see if some hydrofluoric acid was leaked to the outside of the plant and whether Samsung’s safety facilities are well maintained to protect its workers from toxic chemicals. Continue reading »
Samsung & Apple’s shared misery: numbers up, stocks down
Relations between Samsung and Apple reached a low point last year as they squared off in intellectual property disputes on four continents.
But this week gave the rivals something to bond over: each company reported strong growth in smartphone sales, only to watch investors rush for the exit. Continue reading »
China’s trust busters flex their muscles
Fines handed down on Friday by China’s anti-trust body to Korean giants Samsung and LG and four smaller Taiwanese manufacturers are a clear sign that China is getting tough on price fixing and other anti-competitive behaviour. Foreign companies can now expect the same treatment in China as they get in the US and Europe. Continue reading »
Samsung strikes back against iPhone5
The commercial success of the iPhone 5, despite some criticism that it lacks new features, is clearly a threat to Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone producer.
So, to divert consumers’ attention away from Apple’s launch last week, Samsung on Wednesday introduced its latest smartphone model Galaxy Note II into the Korean market and will start selling it abroad next month. Continue reading »
Samsung: legal threat to chaebols?
Lee Kun-hee, the 70-year-old chairman of Samsung Electronics and South Korea’s richest man, will have food for thought after the company’s legal defeat by Apple in California last Friday. But developments closer to home could soon give him a new headache: lawmakers are seeking to tackle the complex shareholding structures through which the founding families of South Korea’s chaebol conglomerates keep their grip on their corporate empires. Continue reading »
Foxconn: sharing Nokia’s pain
With the shock of the Apple-Samsung verdict still reverberating around the smartphone world, here comes a sharp reminder of the fact while these two giants may have their problems, life is much harder for their competitors.
Shares in Foxconn International Holdings (FIH) plunged on Tuesday after it reported a record first-half net loss. The company, the Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision, is only one chunk of the Taiwanese parent group’s empire. It’s not the bit that works for Apple: FIH’s customers are Apple’s hard-pressed rivals, led by Nokia. Enough said. Continue reading »
Samung v Apple: the S Korean verdict
Samsung won a partial victory against Apple in South Korea in its legal battle over technology patients but that failed to lift the company’s stock price.
Samsung’s shares extended losses on Friday, closing down 0.93 per cent at Won1.275m on heavy foreign selling. The shares had gone up more than 20 per cent for about a month since hitting a trough of Won1.09m in mid-July but they have fallen about 5 per cent over the past two weeks. Continue reading »
Apple in China: not as cool as before
These are not happy days for Apple in China. The iconic American brand, outpaced by Samsung in its appeal among Chinese consumers since last year, is now also losing out to other smartphone competitors.
According to IDC, Apple’s share of the Chinese smartphone market by shipments fell by nearly half to 10 per cent in the second quarter from three months earlier. The company came fourth in a ranking topped by Samsung and Lenovo, the Chinese company that is also the world’s second-largest PC vendor. Continue reading »
HTC: not so smart now
Taiwan’s HTC can’t get a break.
Sales are falling, low-cost mainland competitor Xiaomi just released a phone whose specs are competitive with a high-end HTC model, and on Monday the company announced a $40m write off on its stake in an internet gaming company. What’s a company to do? Continue reading »
Apple’s Chinese rival in model launch
“Isn’t MI2 so bloody cool?” With this question Lei Jun, China’s most prominent angel investor and founder of the country’s most ambitious homegrown smartphone brand Xiaomi, launched his new device this week.
If the fans screaming enthusiastically in response are any indication, Apple could face a new challenger in China. While the immediate worry is Samsung, Xiaomi too could become a real threat. Continue reading »
It’ll all come out in the wash: Whirlpool wins small victory over SK rivals
An apparent victory for Whirlpool, the US appliance manufacturer, over South Korean rivals on Wednesday.
In a preliminary finding announced on Wednesday by the US Commerce Department, Whirlpool’s claim that its South Korean rivals were selling washers in the US for less than production costs was accepted. The company argued that Korean manufacturers have benefited from unfair government subsidies. Continue reading »
Samsung: enjoy it while you can
Will Samsung’s latest smartphone Galaxy S III become the iPhone killer? It may be too early to say but the new phone, which was launched in London earlier this month amid much fanfare, looks likely to become another big hit for the South Korean company. Continue reading »
LG: Optimus primed for fightback
Is LG Electronics ready to fight back in the fast-growing smartphone market? The South Korean company, a latecomer to the higher-margin end of the phone business, has struggled to defend its market share in the fast-changing market due to a lack of popular smartphone models.
But its latest smartphone called the Optimus LTE II, which was launched in its domestic market, could help the company reverse its sliding fortunes. LG has pinned high hopes on smartphones running on the high-speed LTE (long-term evolution) networks as the demand grows for higher data speeds. Continue reading »
Smartphones: HTC struggles to keep up
The results of last year’s smartphone battle show pretty clearly from the first-quarter fortunes of Samsung and HTC. While Samsung posted record profits and overtook Nokia to become the world’s biggest seller of mobile phones, HTC saw its profits fall 70 per cent, the most in a decade.
Could this year see Samsung consolidate its lead? Did Wednesday’s launch of Samsung’s latest Galaxy S3 smartphone deal another, perhaps fatal, blow to HTC, which introduced its 2012 model – the One family of smartphones – three months ago? Continue reading »
Samsung: king of the hill
Whether you are on the train in London, Hong Kong or New York, there’s one thing you’ve probably seen a lot more of in the last 6 months: Samsung Galaxy phones.
Sure enough, the SII – South Korea’s challenger to the iPhone – and its over-sized brother, the Note, have helped Samsung conquer the mobile phone market, according to the latest company figures and analyst estimates. Continue reading »
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