Tag: samsung

Samsung shows off Tizen watch

Posted on August 29, 2014 by - News

samsung_gear_s_pure_white_2_storySamsung has opened the kimono in its new Tizen based watch which has a curved 2-inch Super AMOLED display.

Although the Gear S smartwatch will not be much different from its predecessors, it will be the first Samsung smartwatch to offer 3G support. This means there will be no need for a Bluetooth connection to sync the wearable with a smartphone, though Bluetooth and WiFi support will still be there.

The Gear S has a dual-core 1GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM along with 4 GB of internal storage. It will also have GPS support and will serve for navigation purposes using Nokia’s HERE maps. Samsung says the wearable will have up to 2 days of battery life which it puts down to the use of Tizen.

It has the usual standard features like a heart rate sensor, a compass, an ambient light sensor will also be included. For the health-savy, all the S Health offerings will be there and Nike+ will be supported as well.

The device will go on sale this October and no word on the price yet.

 

 

Apple and Samsung declare truce

Posted on August 6, 2014 by - News

soldiers-2The thermonuclear patent war between Apple and Samsung is only going to be fought in the US.

The two sides have negotiated a sort of truce, where the only court battles between the two will be fought in US courts.  It is a bit like Israel and Hamas agreeing to shoot at one another only in one district of Gaza.

Samsung Electronics said that it and Apple would continue to pursue existing cases in US courts. The two companies did not strike any cross-licensing deal.

However it is widely seen as a start and a significant lessening of corporate hostilities after years of bitter patent disputes over the intellectual property rights for mobile designs and technology.  The move will end legal fights in more than 12 countries in Asia, North America and Europe.

In any event, a win in the US will mean bigger awards for damages than other countries.

But some analysts have said that the two companies would eventually bury the hatchet and sign a cross-licensing deal.

 

Child labour plant dogs Samsung

Posted on August 5, 2014 by - News

child_laborThe Chinese subsidiary of Shinyang Engineering has started supplying parts to Samsung a month after business ties were cut over child labour allegations.

Samsung halted business with Dongguan Shinyang Electronics after China Labor Watch found at least five child workers without contracts at the plant.

The kids were working on the assembly lines at Dongguan Shinyang and yet a month earlier an independent audit by Samsung found no child labour at the site.

Shinyang said that a third-party firm supplying workers had brought in child labourers around the end of June with forged identification.

There are no child workers at Dongguan Shinyang now and the children working at the plant have been let go.

Samsung suppliers have been under watch since 2012, when China Labor Watch found seven children younger than 16 were working for one of the South Korean firm’s China-based suppliers. Chinese law forbids hiring workers under 16.

Apple had a similar problem with some of its Chinese contacts and people objecting to Foxconn workers throwing themselves off buildings rather than making its shiny toys.

Microsoft nukes Samsung

Posted on August 4, 2014 by - News

rage-explosionIt seems that Microsoft really has copied Apple in its treatment of the smartphone maker Samsung.

According to a company blog, Microsoft is suing Samsung over its version of Android software in the Southern District of New York.

David Howard, Vole’s Deputy General Counsel said that Microsoft did not take lightly filing a legal action, especially against a company with which it had enjoyed a long and productive partnership. However it appears the pair have fallen out.

“ After spending months trying to resolve our disagreement, Samsung has made clear in a series of letters and discussions that we have a fundamental disagreement as to the meaning of our contract,” he wrote.

Microsoft said that Samsung voluntarily entered into a legally binding contract with Microsoft to cross-license IP which was extremely beneficial for both parties.

Since Samsung entered into the agreement, its smartphone sales have quadrupled and it is now the leading worldwide player in the smartphone market and decided late last year to stop complying with its agreement with Microsoft.

When Vole bought Nokia Devices and Services business, Samsung began using the acquisition as an excuse to breach its contract, Howard alleged.

He added that Microsoft and Samsung had a long history of collaboration. Microsoft values and respects its partnership with Samsung and expects it to continue. It is simply asking the Court to settle the disagreement, and is confident the contract will be enforced.

Samsung sulks as profits slump

Posted on July 31, 2014 by - News

sulkingSamsung reported its worst quarterly profit in two years and moaned about uncertain earnings prospects for its key handset business.

The fact it gave such a doomed profits prophecy and kept its interim dividend unchanged from last year, put the shares of the outfit on track for their worst fall in nearly eight months.

Samsung expects July-September handset shipments to pick up by 10 percent from the previous quarter and said it planned to release a new premium smartphone employing a new design and material.

The outfit is suffering from its low end being squeezed from Chinese rivals like Xiaomi and has promised price cuts.

Those plans were pretty much want everyone thought it would do Samsung remained downbeat about its third-quarter prospects, with its mobile division expecting a decline in average sales price in the current quarter from the April-June period.

Senior Vice President Kim Hyun-joon said that considering intensifying competition of price and specifications as well as the release of new competing models, it is difficult to expect earnings to improve from the second quarter.

For April-June, Samsung said operating profit fell 24.6 percent annually to $7.03 billion, matching its guidance. It was the third straight quarter of profit decline and its weakest result since the second quarter of 2012.

Profit for the mobile division fell to about $4.42 billion from $6.28 billion a year ago.

Samsung’s mobile division executives returned a quarter of their first-half bonuses and have downgraded to economy seats for shorter flights.

Researcher IDC warned that Samsung’s second-quarter global smartphone market share slipped to 25.2 percent from 32.3 percent a year ago.

Samsung’s guidance on its memory business was bullish, tipping its 2014 shipment growth for both DRAM and NAND memory chips to outpace the broader market.

Apple and Samsung lose out

Posted on July 30, 2014 by - News

1920s-telephone-advertApple and Samsung’s European bottom lines are being kicked by a surge of interest in local smartphones.

A report from Netbiscuits suggests that customers are becoming increasingly frustrated at the mobile market monoculture and Apple and Samsung are experiencing their first major challenge from disruptive European vendors.

Head of global research at Netbiscuits Duncan Clark said that his report marks a dramatic shift in mobile market share which are mirrored in Asia were emerging local vendors in Asia have been doing well.

French company Wiko and bq in Spain have muscled a “Top 50 devices” spot in their own countries for the first time ever.

Coupled with increased fragmentation in Asian markets as cheaper brands enter the market, it seems that smaller, companies are gaining popularity around the world and disrupting dominant players.

It is still early days yet, but it does show that the Golden Age where Apple and Samsung rule the smartphone world is coming to a close.

 

 

 

 

Samsung delays Tizen

Posted on July 29, 2014 by - News

tizen-(1)Samsung’s plans to get its Tizen phone into the shops have been delayed, with the initial planned third quarter launch in Russia abandoned.

The Korean electronics maker had been hoping that Tizen would cut its dependency on Android.

The phone was supposed to be tried out in Russia sometime in the third quarter, but Samsung said it needed more time to enhance the “Tizen ecosystem.”

This comes as no real surprise as there had been rumblings at a recent Tizen developer’ conference two weeks ago, but this was put down to a dodgy fish supper.

Samsung did not say exactly what was wrong with Tizen but it would appear to be concerns about the availability of apps and related services that are needed to make the product sell.

Network operators NTT DoCoMo and France’s Orange pulled out of promotional campaigns launching the Tizen phone because of a lack of Apps.

Samsung has already launched Tizen smartwatches and cameras, but wants to get it into smartphones so that it has greater control over its phones operating system. Its license agreement with Google restricts its freedom to make more than cosmetic changes to the Android system.

 

TSMC shares fall on rumours of chip cancellations

Posted on July 17, 2014 by - News

A not so mobile X86 PCTSMC shares fell as much as six percent after an analyst and Taiwanese media reported that Apple and Qualcomm were going to buy their next generation chips from elsewhere.

This is bad news as TSMC reported its highest quarterly profit since the end of 2006, and said it expected revenue to grow at least a record 20 percent this year. But its outlook was based on increased demand from Apple which recently chose TSMC over Samsung to make the majority of chips for the successor to its iPhone 5 series of smartphones.

But it looks like Apple and Qualcomm will likely buy a larger proportion of 14 nanometer smartphone chips from Samsung rather than TSMC beginning in the second half of 2015.

KGI Securities analyst Michael Liu said in a note to clients that he found that tasty bit of gossip following an investor conference held after TSMC reported second-quarter earnings.

The Commercial Times on Thursday, citing market speculation, said Qualcomm has already started working with Samsung to develop the chips. The Economic Daily News said without citing sources that Qualcomm had placed orders with Samsung.

However the rumours are not believed by everyone. Quanta Securities Analyst George Chang, who also attended the conference, said this was just a lot of speculation as no one has even seen the iPhone 6 yet, so it’s too early to say anything about future products.

During the conference, TSMC Chairman Morris Chang admitted that the company’s market share in 16 nanometer chips – which perform similarly to 14 nanometer chips – will be smaller than “a major competitor” next year, and that TSMC will claw it all back the year after.

Samsung suspends supplier contract over kiddie labour

Posted on July 14, 2014 by - News

android-china-communistSamsung has suspended business with a Chinese supplier over allegations of employing child labour.

The move comes a week after a US watchdog report accused the supplier of using underaged workers and Samsung promised to investigate.

Samsung said its investigations had found an “illegal hiring process” at Dongguan Shinyang Electronics which supplies mobile phone covers and parts.

Samsung added that it had previously found no child workers at the Chinese company in three audits since 2013. The latest audit ended on June 25.

The company said that it would cut all ties with the supplier if the allegations were true.

“If the investigations conclude that the supplier indeed hired children illegally, Samsung will permanently halt business with the supplier in accordance with its zero-tolerance policy on child labour,” it said.

US-based China Labor Watch released a report on last week claiming that the Chinese firm used child labour. The watchdog said it had found “at least five child workers” without contracts at the supplier.

Samsung demands suppliers adopt a hiring process that includes face-to-face interviews and the use of scanners to detect fake IDs, to ensure no child labourers are employed.

China Labor Watch said that Samsung’s monitoring system was ineffective because it was failing to catch the use of child labour by the supplier.

 

 

 

Apple snubs Samsung

Posted on July 11, 2014 by - News

Samsung rules the roostAs we have been expecting for some time, Apple is pulling away from manufacturing its chips with Samsung and having TSMC make them.

According to the Wall Street Journal, TSMC has shipped its first batch of microprocessors to Apple.

The move is being seen as Apple punishing Samsung for daring to compete against it and means that TSMC has supplanted Samsung Electronics as Apple’s chief chipmaker for iPhones and iPads.

The business relationship between Apple and Samsung will continue as Jobs’ Mob will continue to rely on the Korean electronics giant for some of its microprocessors.

Prior to the TSMC deal, Samsung was the exclusive supplier of Apple’s microprocessors since the very first iPhone launched in 2007. Jobs’ Mob has also been trying to find other people to make its screens.

The Tame Apple Press is rubbing its paws with glee with Business Insider   saying that all this could not have come at a worse time as Samsung has already been feeling the effects from the slowdown in sales.

We are not sure it thought that comment through, because the same problem is applying to Apple too.

There are a few flaws in the WSJ story. Firstly it is not clear how many microprocessors TSMC has shipped to Apple and given that it is the first batch we would not have thought it to be that many.

Secondly “sources said” the chipmaker has begun manufacturing Apple’s processors with its “advanced 20-nanometer manufacturing technology”.

It also said that the pair are testing next-generation microprocessors on a 16-nanometer process that will be used in “large scale” next year. This gives a better clue as to what Apple is doing.

Samsung spent $22 billion last year making it the biggest spender, capital investment-wise in the process improvements. It is about a year behind TSMC in actually making products.

TSMC has a 20 nm process ready and the 16 nm node is expected to be taped out late this year (Q4 2014) or very early next year (Q1 2015). Rather than punishing Samsung, Apple appears to have made a pragmatic technology decision which will give it 20nm and 16 nm technology before anyone else.  Then, by the time Samsung has caught up, it will have to bid alongside Intel and TSMC at a cheaper rate.

This is assuming of course that TSMC does not have some other process improvement up its sleeve.

 

Samsung smartphone sales slump

Posted on July 8, 2014 by - News

smartphones-genericThere are signs that the rise of electronic’s giant Samsung is losing its impetus after it issued unexpectedly weak quarterly earnings guidance.

It is looking as like the outfit is headed for its worst results in two years and that its plans to deal with cheaper Chinese rivals are not working.

The South Korean company said it saw better business conditions in the third quarter,  butit faces slowing market growth, intensifying price competition from the cheap and cheerful market.

While smartphones drove Samsung to record profits last year, the market is maturing. Research firm IDC predicts global shipments growth will slow to 19.3 percent this year from 39.2 percent in 2013, while average sales prices will also drop.

Some analysts said Samsung may have no choice but to slash prices for mid-to-low tier devices, where growth is stronger, and target Huawei and Lenovo.

That will help defend market share it would also hurt margins, curbing its earnings recovery in the short term.

Samsung said that it cautiously expects a better third-quarter outlook with the release of a new smartphone lineup, lower marketing costs and a seasonal lift in demand for its memory business. Its flagship Galaxy Note 4 is expected to hit the market in September.

Samsung estimated on Tuesday that its April-June operating profit likely fell 24.5 percent from a year earlier to $7.12 billion, the sharpest percentage drop since the first quarter of 2011 and the weakest level since the second quarter of 2012.

In a separate statement, Samsung said second-quarter earnings would be hit by slower global smartphone market growth, competition in China, inventory buildup in Europe and the strength of the won.

 

Tab market booms in MEA

Posted on March 10, 2014 by - News

tablet-womanWhile Western Europe and the USA are showing signs of saturation for tablet sales, it looks like some regions are continuing to boom.

A report from IDC said that PC tablets grew 111 percent year on year in the last quarter of 2013 in the Middle East and African (MEA) markets.

Shipments amounted to 3.45 million units and both the home segment and the corporate segment showed steady growth. The educational market also saw growth.

Huawei won a deal to supply around 90,000 units in South Africa in the education sector.

Android wins the game – 2.8 million units shipped up 16 percent compared to the same quarter in 2012.  iOS fell and Windows OS lost share in Q4 2013.

Top vendor was Samsung, followed by Apple, Lenovo, Asus and Huawei.

The PC market will fall further in 2014, while tablets will grow significantly, IDC said.

Tablets continue their march forwards

Posted on February 27, 2014 by - News

cheap-tablets230 million smart connected devices – a term including smartphones, PCs and tablets – shipped in 2013 in Europe.

That’s according to a report from IDC today, which said that although growth was slightly down compared to 2012, the market continues to be one of the fastest growing IT sectors.

Tablets, particularly, will drive the sector during this year – shipments in Europe are likely to grow by 17.6 percent.  45 million units sold in Western Europe in 2013 – that’s a growth of 51.4 percent oer the previous year.  IDC thinks tablets will continue to show strong growth over the next three years.

The news is far gloomier for PCs – the market for consumer devices fell by 2.4 percent in Q4 2013. Enterprise sales, hwever, grew by 3.5 percent.

Smartphones are the undoubted king of the connected castle though. IDC said that they hogged 55 percent of the the sector, with 38 million units shipping  in Q4 2013.

Here is the breakdown of the market leaders in the sector, according to IDC.
q42013

Peripherals continue to grow

Posted on February 20, 2014 by - News

shut-up-and-take-my-moneyThere’s still room for hard copy in the human universe and the worldwide market for peripherals continued to recover in the fourth quarter of 2013.

That’s according to IDC, which said 31.7 million units shipped in Q4 2013, up two percent from the same period in 2012.

Laser devices grew 4.5 percent year on year, and three of the top five vendors created market buzz.

HP, said IDC, increased its channel support and introduced the HP Rebate programme.  Brother introduced several products and  both companies showed “solid” year on year growth.

By sector, inkjet devices remains the top tech with over 19.6 million units amounting to 62 percent of the overall shre.  Inkjet shipments fell, however, by 1.1 percent year on year for Q4 2013.

Laser shipments saw the third consecutive quarter of growth.  Monochrome peripherals represent 82.3 percent of the laser market.

But colour laser printers grew 8.4 percent amounting to over 1.9 million units in Q4 2013.

The top five vendors are HP, Canon, Epson, Brother and Samsung with market shares of 39.8 percent, 20.6 percent, 15.4 percent, 7.5 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively.

Samsung expands hardware channel

Posted on February 19, 2014 by - News

Samsung rules the roostKorean giant Samsung said it will work with NAPPS  to grow its MPS and print hardware channel. NAPPS members include Adobe, Docuware, Kyocera and Xerox.

It’s the certification body for the UK document management business.

Samsung joins a number of Managed Document Services (MDS) organisations which, it says, work together to ensure good service and best practice.

According to Mark Ash, who is the UK general manager in print a Samsung UK, his company pledges to give all of its resellers good technology, tools and services.

”Giving our dealers the opportunity to join us as part of NAPPS is just another way for Samsung to strengthen our dealers’ performance,” he said. “MPS remains a key strategic growth area for us in 2014 and we will continue the significant investment programme that was started in 2013 with further increases in people, processes and technology.”

He said that Samsung is rapidly expanding its indirect channel. “New dealers are signing up on a weekly basis.”