Asian firms challenge Apple with snazzy new smartphones

BARCELONA, Spain — Several big Asian phone companies launched new high-end smartphones and other wireless gizmos on Sunday, hoping to challenge US giant Apple in a big year for wireless gadgets.

Samsung, fellow South Korean firm LG and hip Chinese maker HTC timed their smartphone launches to grab the attention on the eve of the Mobile World Congress, the world’s biggest telecoms trade fair, in Barcelona, Spain.

In a head-on challenge to Apple’s popular iPhone 6 which was released last year, Samsung came out fighting on Sunday with the Galaxy S6, a smartphone with a touchscreen that curves around the edges and has a wireless charger.

It also presented the larger S6 Edge, a “phablet” somewhere between a tablet and a phone in size.

LG unveiled a new top-line phone with a curved back to sit snugly in the palm, the LG Flex 2, as well as a range of four new mid-range smartphones and two new luxury internet-connected watches.

At a noisy stage presentation before a crowd of hundreds, HTC chief executive Peter Chou meanwhile presented the HTC One M9, with a grey metallic handset moulded from a single piece of aluminium.

HTC also revealed a new connected “fitness band” body-monitoring bracelet and a virtual reality headset that it said it hoped to sell commercially by the end of the year.

Apple as usual was staying away from the Barcelona show but was reported to be preparing a coup with the launch next month of its new Apple Watch, reflecting a major trend in wearable gadgets this year.

The chief executive of Samsung’s mobile division, J.K. Shin, said the company aimed to set “a new standard to drive the global mobile agenda”, claiming his phones had the fastest processers and most high-performance cameras on the market.

Samsung is the world’s biggest seller of smartphones but saw its world market share fall last year from 34 percent to 20 percent, according to a report by tech consultancy IDC.

“There’s a risk Samsung’s 2015 flagship devices are insufficient for the company to regain brand leadership among consumers and businesses looking for high-end smartphone experiences,” said Thomas Husson, an analyst at another consultancy, Forrester, in a note after Sunday’s launch.

“Samsung’s lack of software DNA will still prevent it from delivering truly differentiated service experiences like Apple does.”

Also present at the congress were two of the world’s other biggest-selling smartphone makers, Chinese companies Huawei and Xiaomi.

Joining in the rush for big launches on the eve of the trade fair, Huawei unveiled its first “smartwatch”, a round luxury design that, like LG’s, can display incoming call and message alerts.

The companies refused to cite consumer prices for the new products. Top-end smartphones typically cost several hundred dollars.

source: interaksyon.com

LG Display unveils curved handset display for November launch

SEOUL — LG Electronics Inc’s display unit said on Monday it will start mass production of curved smartphone displays as the South Korean phone maker plans to launch a smartphone with the new screens next month to catch bigger rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

Samsung said last month it would introduce a smartphone with a curved display in October as the world’s top handset maker seeks to set the pace of hardware innovation amid slowing growth in the high-end smartphone market.

Curved displays are in the early stages of development and allow bendable or foldable designs that could eventually allow mobile and wearable gadgets to take new forms that could radically change the high-end smartphone market.

LG Display Co Ltd said on Monday it has started production of a six-inch display curved top to bottom. LG Electronics plans to launch a smartphone with the curved display in November, a source familiar with the matter said.

By contrast, Samsung’s phone will have a display curved side to side, another source who has direct knowledge of the matter said.

In January Samsung, which has taken over from Apple Inc as the global smartphone leader, showed off prototype products with a flexible screen and a display that extends from the side of a device.

Technology firms have yet to figure out how to mass produce the parts cheaply and come up with display panels that can be thin and heat resistant.

Curved displays are already commercially available in large-screen televisions. Samsung and LG Electronics started selling curved OLED TV sets this year priced at about $9,000.

source: interaksyon.com

LG, Samsung Display feel heat from Chinese LCD makers

SEOUL — Chinese flat screen makers, once dismissed as second-class players in the global LCD market, are drawing envious looks from big names such as LG Display Co Ltd and Samsung.

While the Korean giants were busy developing next-generation organic light emitting diode (OLED) TVs, little-known Chinese companies have started selling a type of display that are sharper than the standard LCD and cheaper than OLED.

Say hello to ultra high-definition (UHD) displays.

Until last year, the UHD market had been almost non-existent, with just 33,000 sets sold in the 200 million-unit LCD TV market. Since then, shipments have soared around 20-fold, thanks to China, data from research firm IHS shows.

Chinese consumers who want brighter and sharper images but can’t afford OLED screens made by LG and Samsung Display, a unit of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, are turning to UHD.

The risk for OLED is that UHD may become mainstream and the long-awaited cheaper OLEDs arrive too late to displace it, analysts say.

OLED’s long-term potential is huge: ultra-high resolution, screens thin enough that they could conceivably be curved or even rolled up, and so on.

But its slow introduction into the market and austere prices have thrown open a window of opportunity for UHD makers, in this case Chinese companies like BOE Technology Group Co Ltd and TCL Corp’s LCD unit CSOT.

In China, 55-inch UHD models sell for around $1,800. By contrast, an OLED TV of similar dimensions sold by Samsung Electronics costs around $10,000.

“(I) have to admit that we hadn’t fully appreciated the potential of the UHD market,” LG Display’s Chief Executive Han Sang-beom said recently.

“We assumed it’ll be too early for this type of display to take off, and thus didn’t think much of having diverse UHD product line-ups, especially in the low end. But I think we are not late just yet and we are working hard to lead the market here.”

As Korean display makers work on their response to this growing menace, Chinese UHD makers are enjoying the fattest margins in the industry.

Even cross-strait rivals Innolux Corp and AU Optronics Corp have joined in the fray, drawn by promises of big profits.

In the second quarter ended June, Shenzhen-listed BOE Technology reported an 8.9 percent operating profit margin, while China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT), a unit of China’s biggest TV maker TCL Corp, posted a 9.6 percent margin.

By comparison, Japanese flat-screen pioneer Sharp Corp reported a razor-thin 0.5 percent margin. LG Display, the world’s No.1 LCD maker, posted a 5.6 percent margin.

Samsung Display, a unit of Samsung Electronics, had a margin of 13 percent, the biggest in the industry. But excluding its fledging OLED business, its LCD margin is between 3 and 7 percent, according to a Bernstein forecast.

Déjà vu?

Just as Korea overtook flat-screen pioneer Japan in the early 2000s, the surprise offensive by Chinese flat screen makers may be a taste of what’s to come, analysts say.

Chinese UHD producers have steadily expanded their capacity. In terms of cost and technological know-how, UHD presents lower barriers to entry compared to OLED.

“The Chinese have done very well so far this year and their momentum is likely to continue at least for another year or so, as they have spotted the potential of this niche market well ahead of bigger rivals,” said Nam Dae-jong, an analyst at Hana Daetoo Investment & Securities.

“They’ve got also strong captive customers – Chinese TV manufacturers and a booming China market. It will take quite a while for Samsung and LG, which made a strategic mistake by ignoring the potential of UHD, to overtake them,” Nam said.

Jolted by the reality of a growing UHD market, Samsung Electronics unveiled a 110-inch UHD TV in January. Interestingly, the UHD displays were not made by Samsung Display, but were produced by Taiwan’s AU Optronics.

“Even with some expansion of the Chinese panel suppliers we do expect Samsung and LG Display to stay dominant and continue production in LCD,” said Sweta Dash, director at IHS.

While Samsung and LG Display are investing billions of dollars in OLED this year, the two giants are also broadening their product lineups to include more popular 50 to 60-inch UHD models.

BOE Technology is now planning to raise 46 billion yuan ($7.5 billion) in the biggest Chinese equity offering this year, to build panel production lines and increase its stake in its LCD venture BOE Display Technology.

source: interaksyon.com

New iPhone starts production with thinner display from LG

SEOUL — Flat-screen maker LG Display has started mass production of a new and thinner display, widely speculated to be for use in Apple Inc’s next iPhone, and the display’s production schedule remains in line with customers’ product release plans, LG’s chief executive said.

“We just began mass production and we don’t expect any disruption in supplies,” Han Sang-beom, chief executive of LG Display, a panel supplier for Apple products, told reporters late on Wednesday.

His comments were embargoed until early Thursday morning.

Apple is planning a major product launch on September 12, stoking speculation that the world’s most valuable technology company will announce the sale of its redesigned iPhone.

Apple is equipping the next iPhone with a larger screen after Samsung Electronics unveiled its latest Galaxy smartphone with a 4.8-inch touch-screen.

Sources have told Reuters that the panels for the new iPhone will be 4 inches corner to corner — 30 percent bigger than current iPhones.

The iPhone screens will also be thinner than previous versions with the use of so-called in-cell panels. The new technology embeds touch sensors into the liquid crystal display, eliminating the touch-screen layer found in current iPhones.

Japan’s Sharp Corp also said earlier this month it would start shipping screens destined for a new iPhone in August.

source: interaksyon.com

LG Electronics to launch Google TV in US – executive

SEOUL—LG Electronics Inc. the world's No.2 TV maker, plans to launch Internet-enabled TV based on Google's platform in the United States in the week of May 21, as the South Korean firm seeks to gain a larger share of the emerging Internet TV market, a senior LG executive said on Monday.

The move reflects an aggressive push by the duo to defend against a potential threat from Apple Inc., which reshaped the handset market with its iPhone smartphone and is widely expected to unveil a full-fledged TV product later this year or early next year.

"Production of Google TVs will start from May 17 from our factory in Mexico and US consumers will be able to buy the product from the week of May 21," Ro Seogho, executive vice president of LG's TV business unit, told a small group of reporters.

Google TV allows viewers to access Google services such as searches and YouTube videos on their television screens.

Ro said LG will decide whether to expand the offering to Europe and Asia after reviewing sales performance in the US market.

LG gave no shipment target or details of prices or screen sizes.

Research firm IHS iSuppli estimates the global Internet-enabled TV market will grow nearly 60 percent this year to 95 million sets, far outpacing the TV market overall, which is expected to expand by just 2 percent.

The second version of Internet TV by Google, which hopes to replicate the success of its Android mobile software in the TV market, comes after its previous model, unveiled in 2010, failed to catch on with consumers.

Google's attempt to capture the living room audience has seen limited success so far due to a lack of web content or support from hardware manufacturers.

TV manufacturers from LG to its bigger rival Samsung Electronics Co. have their own Internet-enabling TV platforms and are aggressively pushing their own technologies, along with Google TV, to gain the initiative and prop up margins with high-end products amid growing competition from low-cost producers.

LG plans to fit around 60 percent of its TVs with its own NetCast platform installed, to allow viewers access to the Internet, social networking and online games as well as LG's own TV applications.

LG saw its TV division's profit margin rising sharply to above 4 percent in the first quarter, helped by strong sales of high-end models such as 3D TVs and Internet-enabled sets, just when Sony Corp., Panasonic Corp. and Sharp Corp. expect to have lost a combined $21 billion in the business year that ended on March 31.

LG doubled its share of the 3D TV market to 15.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 from earlier in the year, helped by cheaper and lighter 3D glasses that do not require the batteries and switches used in conventional 3D sets made by Samsung, Sony and others.

Sony's share of the 3D TV market tumbled to 13 percent in the October-December quarter from 34.6 percent in January-March quarter of last year, according to DisplaySearch.

LG hopes to further steal a march on its rivals by bringing forward the launch of a 55-inch flat-screen TV using next-generation technology, raising the stakes in a cutthroat battle for the living room between Asia's top tech powerhouses.

Google ambitions

Google has long held ambitions in the television arena, hoping to extend its online advertising business to the big screens that still command the lion's share of global advertising budgets, and to make the best use of its ownership of YouTube, the world's most popular online video site.

But Logitech International, one of Google's initial partners that developed a set-top box offering the service, said late last year it had lost tens of millions of dollars building set-top boxes for Google devices due to weak sales.

An LG official said retailers' responses to the latest Google TV were positive. —Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com