Can Samsung bounce back after Note 7 fiasco?

SEOUL, South Korea— The fiasco of Samsung’s fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 smartphones — and Samsung’s stumbling response to the problem — has left consumers from Shanghai to New York reconsidering how they feel about the South Korean tech giant and its products.

Samsung Electronics said Tuesday it would stop making the Note 7 for good, after first recalling some devices and then recalling their replacements, too. Now, like the makers of Tylenol, Ford Pintos and other products that faced crises in the past, it must try to restore its relationship with customers as it repairs the damage to its brand.

Samsung shares plunged as much as 8 percent in Seoul, their biggest one-day drop since the 2008 financial crisis, after the company apologized for halting sales of the Note 7.

“I’m in a state of ‘I don’t know,'” said Pamela Gill, a 51-year-old who works at Pratt Institute, a college in New York City, and likes her replacement Note 7.

“You’re thinking, do I have to turn it in? Is it going to blow up?” she said.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF FIRE

Samsung, South Korea’s biggest company by far, announced a global recall of the devices last month. It said a subtle manufacturing error in the batteries made the phones prone to catch fire, and offered to replace the devices.

But South Korea’s safety agency says a new, still unidentified problem with the replacement devices makes them also likely to overheat.

Some consumers blame Samsung for not dealing decisively with the issue. Hahm Young-kyu, a 43-year-old South Korean office worker in Seoul whose wife is still using the Galaxy Note 7, exclaims in frustration that the manufacturer tried to “cover up” the Note 7’s failings.

Samsung’s initial recall had a rocky start. After the first reports of overheating devices, it offered replacements, but not refunds. It waited a week before advising consumers to stop using the affected devices. And critics complained that some retailers didn’t have up-to-date information until Samsung made a coordinated announcement with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

“Ultimately they did the right thing, which was to announce a full recall,” said Jan Dawson, a tech industry analyst with Jackdaw Research. But when the replacement devices ran into trouble too, he added: “That all goes out the window. Samsung’s claims about fixing the problem are no longer reliable.

“Now they’ve got to demonstrate why potential buyers shouldn’t worry about future Samsung devices,” Dawson said.

As one of the world’s largest tech conglomerates, Samsung can afford to discontinue the Note 7, which was not its biggest-selling phone. While the cost of recalling devices and halting production could exceed $1 billon, it makes far more than that every quarter on sales of components for smartphones and computers.

But analysts say the new, unexplained Note 7 problems will still inevitably hurt.

MYSTERY DEFECTS

“A company’s brand is their promise to consumers,” said John Jacobs, an expert on reputation and crisis communications at Georgetown University. “If you break that promise, you lose the customers, you lose their loyalty.”

Initially, the Note 7 got glowing reviews for its size, features and big battery capacity. Now the company is struggling to figure out what exactly is wrong.

“They have to comprehensively check everything from the very basics, outside the battery and inside the phone,” said Park Chul Wan. Park, a former director of the next generation battery research center at the state-owned Korea Electronics Technology Institute.

Park has long argued that Note 7’s problems appeared to be more than a simple battery defect. “This is a truly difficult problem. It was Samsung’s mistake to have underestimated it,” he said.

South Korean safety regulators says they are examining components other than the batteries to try to puzzle out why even the replacement phones Samsung made using different batteries are so fire prone.

“The improved product does not have the same defect. That’s why we think there is a new defect,” said Oh Yu-cheon, a senior official at the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards.

BREATHING ROOM

Samsung needs to win back consumers’ trust by the time it launches its next high-end phone, the Galaxy S8, likely in late winter or early spring, Dawson said. “They have that time to come up with a convincing story and a set of actions that will reassure customers that when they buy an S8, it’s going to be safe,” Dawson said.

Kim Young Woo, a tech analyst at SK Securities, believes Samsung could accelerate the launch of the S8 to make up for abandoning the Note 7, but it cannot afford to start from scratch, and it has to find the cause of the overheating.

The Note 7 has cutting-edge features like an electronic stylus and an iris-scanning security feature seemingly suited for a James Bond movie. “Samsung’s best, latest technologies are all in the Note 7,” Park said. “If it releases the next phone, it has to use the technologies in the Note 7.”

The company is the most popular maker of Android phones and the world’s leading smartphone maker, selling over 77 million phones in the second quarter of 2016. But in the prized U.S. market, it lags behind Apple, whose iPhone models are more popular, according to International Data Corp.

CAN SAMSUNG COME BACK?

While the company has suffered a “big setback,” IDC analyst Ryan Reith said, “my guess is it won’t do a lot of damage” to its overall share of the market. But he warned Samsung’s profits may suffer because it will need to offer substantial discounts and other promotions to boost sales of the S7 and other models.

Jacobs, the Georgetown reputation expert, says Samsung will need to do more than that. He said Samsung made the right decision to cancel the Note 7 “for the greater good of the Samsung brand.” But he believes Samsung should emphasize quality and rigorous testing when it promotes future models.

“They want to be known, two years from now, as a company that can be trusted,” he said. When potential customers contemplate future Samsung products, he said, “you don’t want them having that worry in the back of their mind.”

source: technology.inquirer.net

Samsung halts sale, exchange of Note 7 over safety fears

SEOUL, South Korea — Samsung on Tuesday called a worldwide halt to the sale and exchange of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, citing continued safety concerns, and advised all customers to stop using the device immediately.

The dramatic warning came in a written statement issued a little over a month after the world’s largest smartphone maker announced a global recall of 2.5 million Note 7s in 10 markets following complaints that its lithium-ion battery exploded while charging.

The unprecedented recall was a major PR blow for the South Korean conglomerate, which prides itself on innovation and quality, and the situation only worsened when reports emerged a week ago of replacement phones also catching fire.

Tuesday’s statement was the first formal acknowledgement of continued safety concerns and came a day after Samsung Electronics acknowledged it was easing production of the flagship smartphone.

“Because consumers’ safety remains our top priority, Samsung will ask all carrier and retail partners globally to stop sales and exchanges of the Galaxy Note 7 while an investigation is taking place,” the statement said.

The top-of-the-line Note 7 was crucial to Samsung’s growth plans this year, with the company struggling to boost sales, squeezed by Apple in the high-end sector and Chinese rivals in the low-end market, as profit has stagnated.

Analysts noted that the move came a little late given that a number of major distributors — US telecom firm AT&T and German rival T-Mobile — unilaterally announced a halt to sales and exchanges of the model on Sunday.

Samsung said its investigation of the “recently reported cases” involving the Note 7 was being carried out in cooperation with the relevant regulatory bodies in those markets where the recall was ordered.

In the meantime, the company advised any consumer with an original or replacement Galaxy Note 7 to “power down and stop using the device” immediately.

In the meantime, the company advised any consumer with an original or replacement Galaxy Note 7 to “power down and stop using the device” immediately.

A similar switch-off warning was issued by Elliot Kaye, chairman of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.

“No one should have to be concerned their phone will endanger them, their family or their property,” Kaye said in a press release.

Samsung’s decision to halt sales and exchanges was “the right move” Kaye said, adding that his commission was actively investigating reports of phones overheating and burning in multiple US states.

Analysts have suggested that Samsung, battling ever-fiercer competition in the saturated smartphone market, may have rushed production of the Note 7 with bitter rival Apple’s recently released iPhone 7 in mind.

The top-of-the-line Note 7 was crucial to Samsung’s growth plans this year, with the company struggling to boost sales, squeezed by Apple in the high-end sector and Chinese rivals in the low-end market, as profit has stagnated.

Management spotlight

The trouble with the Note 7 and the handling of the recall, which analysts say could cost up to $2.0 billion, has shone a spotlight on Samsung’s management at a time when it is navigating a tricky generational power transfer within its founding Lee family.

Industry experts have criticized the Lee dynasty for controlling the vast group through a complex web of cross-shareholdings, even though they directly own only about five percent of total stocks.

And Samsung is also under pressure from one of its shareholders, the activist US hedge fund Elliott Management run by billionaire Paul Singer.

In a detailed proposal unveiled last week, Elliott laid out a strategy for streamlining Samsung, splitting the company in two, dual-listing the resulting operating company on a US exchange and paying shareholders a special dividend of 30 trillion won ($27 billion).

Elliott argued that Samsung, currently a maze of listed and unlisted companies with a notoriously opaque ownership and management structure, had suffered from a long-term undervaluation in the equity market.

Despite all its problems, Samsung on Friday issued a stronger-than-expected operating profit forecast for the third quarter, thanks largely to strong sales of memory chips and OLED display panels. CBB

source: technology.inquirer.net

Samsung introduces ‘ultra-fast storage’ memory cards

Many are in favor of removing storage media on smartphones for its upgradeability while others are against it because of slower read and write concerns. Instead of arguing, Samsung has created really fast and really capacious memory cards.

Called Universal Flash Storage (UFS) removable memory cards, they are rated to attain read speeds of up to 530MB/s, not too distant from an SSD drive’s capabilities. These memory cards also have SSD-like capacities that reach up to 256GB, Engadget reported.

However, the new memory cards will not be backwards compatible with traditional microSD cards as evidenced by the different placement of the contact pins. So far, there is no device out in the market that supports this new standard, so its specifications will still require some real world tests before the consumer market can make a decision to embrace it or stick with the old microSD format.

Point-in-fact SanDisk recently announced its own 256GB capacity microSD line-up.  Alfred Bayle

source: technology.inquirer.net

Samsung to launch Galaxy S6 with curved screen

MANILA, Philippines – Samsung is set to launch its flagship phone, Galaxy S6, on March 1 and teases on having a curved screen feature.

According to Forbes, press invites to the Samsung’s “Galaxy Unpacked” event contained a silhouette of a curve and the line “What’s Next.”

The Galaxy S6 launch will most likely be held during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where other mobile companies are also expected to launch their own flagship units.

Forbes reported that the purported curved design of the Galaxy S6 is in line with the company’s recent move to embrace design change, as seen on the critical response on the Galaxy Edge.

The Galaxy S6 is rumored to have an improved 20 megapixel rear and 5 megapixel front cameras, an improved fingerprint sensor technology, and a 5.1 inch screen.

Despite being the top smartphone manufacturing company in the world, Samsung is reeling from having incurred its lowest profit in three years.

In 2014, the Korean mobile giant’s profit was chalked at 25 trillion won, a 32 percent drop from 2013’s 36.8 trillion won. AJH

source: technology.inquirer.net

Samsung says considering stock split

SEOUL — Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone maker, said on Tuesday it was considering a stock split that would placate existing investors and attract new ones with a more affordable share price.

Head of investor relations Robert Yi said the South Korean tech giant had been looking into a possible split “for a while” but was still debating the benefits of such a move.

“We know it would have a psychological impact, but need to look further at how that might affect the company’s long-term value,” Yi told reporters.

Samsung has been under growing pressure to boost shareholder returns as its stock price has been battered by a series of quarterly profit falls.

Yi’s remarks saw Samsung’s share price jump 2.16 percent to close Tuesday at 1.372 million won ($1,260) — although that is still way off a high of 1.470 million won in June last year.

Samsung is currently in the middle of a $2.0 billion share buyback process announced in November to appease disgruntled shareholders.

With a market capitalisation of about $185 billion, Samsung accounts for nearly 17 percent of the weighting on South Korea’s benchmark Kospi composite index.

source: business.inquirer.net

Samsung adding anti-theft solutions to smartphones

SAN FRANCISCO – Samsung Electronics will add two safeguards to its latest smartphone in an effort to deter rampant theft of the mobile devices, the company said Friday.

The world’s largest mobile-phone maker said users will be able to activate for free its “Find My Mobile” and “Reactivation Lock” anti-theft features to protect the soon-to-be-released Galaxy 5 S.

The features that will lock the phone if there’s an unauthorized attempt to reset it will be on models sold by wireless carriers Verizon and U.S. Cellular. The phones go on sale next week.

“Samsung takes the issue of smartphone theft very seriously, and we are continuing to enhance our security and anti-theft solutions,” the company said in a statement.

The announcement comes as San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and other U.S. law enforcement officials demand that manufacturers create kill switches to combat surging smartphone theft across America.

Earlier this week, California legislators introduced a bill that, if passed, would require mobile devices sold in or shipped in the state be equipped with the anti-theft devices starting next year — a move that could be the first of its kind in the United States. Similar legislation is being considered in New York, Illinois, Minnesota, and bills have been introduced in both houses of Congress.

In July, Samsung officials told Gascon’s office that the major carriers were resisting using kill switches. However, Gascon and Schneiderman said in a joint statement Friday that Samsung’s latest move sends a strong message that the wireless industry can work together to make consumers safe. The prosecutors have given the manufacturers a June deadline to find solutions to curb smartphone theft.

“More work needs to be done to ensure that these solutions come standard on every device, but these companies have done the right thing by responding to our call for action,” the prosecutors said. “No family should lose a mother, a father, a son or a daughter for their phone.

Manufacturers and carriers need to put public safety before corporate profits and stop this violent epidemic, which has put millions of smartphone users at risk.”

Apple created a similar “activation lock” feature for the popular iPhone last year.

Almost one in three U.S. robberies involve phone theft, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Lost and stolen mobile devices — mostly smartphones — cost consumers more than $30 billion in 2012, the agency said in a study.

CTIA-The Wireless Association, a trade group for wireless providers, has said a permanent kill switch has serious risks, including potential vulnerability to hackers who could disable mobile devices and lock out not only individuals’ phones but also phones used by entities such as the Department of Defense, Homeland Security and law enforcement.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Samsung sells 110-inch ultra-HD TV for $150,000

SEOUL, South Korea—Samsung said a 110-inch television that has four times the resolution of standard high-definition TVs is going on sale for about $150,000 in South Korea.

The launch Monday of the giant television set reflects global TV makers’ move toward ultra HD TVs, as manufacturing bigger TVs using OLED proves too costly.

Last year, Samsung and rival LG Electronics, the world’s top two TV makers, touted OLED as the future of TV. OLED screens are ultrathin and can display images with enhanced clarity and deeper color saturation.

But Samsung and LG failed to make OLED TVs a mainstream that would replace the LCD television sets and still struggling to mass produce larger and affordable TVs with OLED. Meanwhile, Japanese media reported last week that Sony Corporation and Panasonic Corporation decided to end their OLED partnership.

Demand for U-HD TVs is expected to rise despite dearth of content while its price will likely come down faster than that of the OLED TVs. Much of the growth is forecast to come from China, a major market for the South Korean TV makers. Chinese TV makers have been making a push into the U-HD TV market as well.

According to NPD DisplaySearch, global sales of ultra-HD TV sets will surge from 1.3 million this year to 23 million in 2017. More than half of the shipments will be taken by Chinese companies between 2013 and 2017, according to NPD.

While Chinese TV makers have been seeking to boost sales of U-HD TVs with a lower price and a smaller size, Samsung’s strategy is to go bigger with a higher price tag. Samsung’s 110-inch U-HD TV measures 2.6 meters by 1.8 meters. It will be available in China, the Middle East and Europe. In South Korea, the TV is priced at 160 million won ($152,000) while prices in other countries vary.

Samsung said it received 10 orders for the latest premium TVs from the Middle East. Previously, the largest U-HD TV made by Samsung was 85-inch measured diagonally.

The ultra-HD TVs are also known as “4K” because they contain four times more pixels than an HD TV.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Samsung, LG to unveil 105-inch curved TVs

SEOUL, South Korea — Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. said their curved TVs will get bigger and sport the sharpness four times the regular HD television sets.

The world’s two largest TV makers will display ultra-HD TVs with curved screens that measure 105 inches diagonally in Las Vegas next month, they said in separate statements Thursday.

The South Korean TV makers began selling curved TV sets earlier this year made with advanced displays called OLED measuring 55 inches.

The upcoming premium TVs set will be made of LCD panels packing more than 11 million pixels, 5,120 pixels wide and 2,160 pixels high. But not much video content is available for the ultra-HD TV sets.

TV makers hope the launch of the new hardware technology will fuel growth of content. Japan’s Sony Corp., among the industry players betting that the ultra-HD images will become the new standard, is working on both gadgets and movies in ultra-HD, also known in the industry as 4K.

Asian TV makers are trying to excite shoppers with new display technology. But limited video content in ultra-HD resolution and price tags will likely limit appeal. Samsung and LG kept mum on prices.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Jury awards Apple $290 million in Samsung patent case

SAN JOSÉ – A US federal jury Thursday ordered Samsung to pay $290 million in damages to Apple in a partial retrial of the blockbuster patent case involving the two smartphone giants.

The award comes instead of $450 million in damages originally awarded in the landmark suit, but thrown out by a judge. It is in addition to nearly $600 million in patent infringement damages upheld from the trial last year.

Apple has accused its South Korean rival of massive and wilful copying of its designs and technology for smartphones and tablets and won the landmark case in a jury decision in August 2012. But the case has been on hold pending multiple appeals.

The original verdict for more than $1 billion was reduced in March when Judge Lucy Koh invalidated some $450 million and ordered a retrial on portions of the case.

The six-woman, two-man jury in Koh’s courtroom in San Jose, California, reached a verdict on the third day of deliberations.

The panel was sent back to the jury room to wait while rival lawyers and the judge checked the verdict to see if there are questions or concerns before entering it into the record.

Even though Apple won the landmark case last year, this has not had much impact on the new smartphones hitting the market, though the California maker of the iPhone is seeking injunctions to bar some Samsung products from being sold in the United States.

The California case is among several pending in courts and administrative agencies around the world between the two electronics giants, each of which accuses the other of infringing on its patents.

After years of following and refining the iPhone’s pioneering innovations – a strategy that resulted in bitter patent battles with Apple – Samsung has dethroned its California-based rival to become the world’s top smartphone maker.

Samsung extended its lead over Apple in the global smartphone market in the third quarter, according to surveys.

The South Korean electronics giant increased its market share by nearly half a percentage point to 31.4 percent, according to the IDC survey. Apple sold 33.8 million iPhones in the quarter, but its growth was slower than the overall market, so its share slipped to 13.1 percent from 14.4 percent a year ago.

There was no immediate comment from Apple or Samsung to Thursday’s verdict.

In a separate legal battle, the US International Trade Commission in August blocked imports of some older model Samsung mobile devices in response to Apple’s complaints on patent violations.

The Obama administration, which had a final review in the case, upheld the decision in October.

The disputes are closely followed because the two companies are the leading players in the smartphone and tablet markets and also because Samsung products are closely aligned with the Android system created by Google, a major Apple rival.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Samsung makes quiet push for new mobile OS

SEOUL, South Korea—Most mobile phone users have never heard of Tizen. Neither have car owners or anyone with a fridge.

Samsung Electronics Co. wants to change that.

The South Korean electronics giant is in a quiet push to make its Tizen operating system a part of the technology lexicon as familiar as Google’s Android or Apple’s iOS. Its ambition doesn’t stop there. Samsung sees the software in your car, fridge and television too.


The first developer conference in Asia for Tizen wrapped up Tuesday after a two-day run, bringing together app developers and Tizen backers from Samsung, Intel and mobile operators.

Samsung did not announce a Tizen phone, but it made a pitch for developers to create apps for the mobile operating system that is yet to be seen in the market. Samsung promised to give out $4 million cash to the creators of the best Tizen apps.

Samsung supplied about one third of the smartphones sold worldwide in the third quarter, nearly all of them running on Google’s Android. Its early bet on Google’s free-of-charge operating system served Samsung well and the company’s rise to top smartphone seller also helped Android become the most used mobile platform in the world. According to Localytics, 63 percent of all Android mobile devices in use are made by Samsung.

But while Samsung was wildly successful with selling its Galaxy phones and tablets, it had little success in locking Galaxy device users into music, messaging and other Samsung services. Google, however, benefited from more people using its search service, Google Play app and other Google mobile applications on Galaxy smartphones. Owners of Galaxy devices remain for the most part a slave to Google’s Android update schedule and its rules.

About nine in every 10 smartphone users are tied to either Google’s Android or Apple’s iPhone ecosystems, generating profit for Google and Apple every time they purchase a game or application on their smartphone.

That is partly why Samsung wants to expand its control beyond hardware to software, by building its own mobile operating system.

“With only hardware, its influence is limited,” said Kang Yeen-kyu, an associate research fellow at state-run Korea Information Society Development Institute. “Samsung’s goal is to establish an ecosystem centered on Samsung.”

The consolidation of global technology companies in the last few years reflects such trends. Apple has always made its own operating system for the iPhone. Google Inc. acquired Motorola Mobility in 2011 and Microsoft Corp. announced in September its plan to buy Nokia Corp., leaving Samsung the only major player in the smartphone market that does not make its own operating system.

Samsung executives told analysts last week that the company plans to beef up its software competitiveness through acquisitions and splashing cash on the development of mobile content and services.

But Tizen’s start appears bumpy. Samsung said earlier this year the first Tizen phone would hit the market this fall but it has not materialized. Samsung declined to comment on release schedules.

Even though Choi Jong-deok, Samsung’s executive vice president overseeing Tizen, said a launch of Tizen phone or televisions will happen “very shortly,” analysts said Samsung is unlikely to reveal the first Tizen device until February of next year, when the company said it will announce winners of its Tizen app contest.

During the developer conference, Samsung gave more clues about how its first Tizen device would look and revealed that it has recently launched a Tizen-based camera in South Korea.

Tizen would work across a vast range of consumer electronics made by Samsung, encompassing mobile devices, televisions, fridges as well as wearable devices. The mobile operating system will also work with automobiles. Samsung and Intel said Toyota Motor Corp. and Jaguar Land Rover are working together to bring Tizen OS to vehicles.

“You can build an application once and relatively easily move from device to device,” Mark Skarpness, director of systems engineering at Intel Corp., told the conference.

Samsung and Intel are also aiming to capture a bigger share of business in emerging markets where demand for cheaper smartphones is growing. Skarpness said future versions of Tizen will support lower-end phones, the same direction that Google is taking with its latest version of Android, KitKat.

“I got an impression that Tizen was benchmarking Android,” said Park Minhyung, a developer who attended the conference. “Speakers at the sessions said that they adopted strong features from Android. But with Android’s place well established in the market, I wonder how Tizen would undermine the front runner.”

source: technology.inquirer.net

How to organize your busy life with Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0

Global smartphone innovator Samsung eases the way busy people, like popular multimedia personality Bianca Gonzalez, organize their day-to-day tasks with the unique features of the new Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0.

Following the tremendous success of its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 is the world’s first eight-inch tablet that empowers its users with the best in mobile technology.

It’s designed with people on the go in mind, allowing them to have complete control over their communication needs, and helps in organizing their day-to-day tasks.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 ushers a new era of portability and productivity wherein organizing, multitasking and decluttering are key factors to achieve mobility. Its slim and compact design perfectly fits in Bianca’s handbag.



Handy as it may seem, it is a powerful gadget that lets Bianca update her more than two million Twitter followers, check her e-mails, keeps track of her hectic schedule, browse the Internet to get inspiration for her articles, read her favorite e-book, and jot down notes instantly. She can even do all these tasks simultaneously, as Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 allows multi-window display.

A writer at heart, Bianca particularly loves the improved S Pen and S Note features as these allow her to compose and share her articles with so much ease. The S Pen feature is optimized to bring out creative expressions, while giving the feel of actually writing down on a piece of paper. With the S Pen, Bianca can write memos, crop and embellish photos, browse the Internet and even make an entry in her diary.

What’s more, the S Pen can now be used without actually touching the screen through the advanced Air View technology. The S Pen needs only to hover over the screen to preview pictures, videos, and e-mails without opening the file or application in full.





Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 intelligently calibrates itself to provide optimal conditions for prolonged reading through the Reading Mode. Eyestrain is reduced as it automatically adjusts brightness, color temperature and contrast ratio depending on lighting conditions.

Bianca also finds the Digital Diary feature very useful. The S-Planner allows her to manage her busy schedule on a daily and monthly basis, attach pictures or memos on specific dates to mark a special event, and even personalize entries to make them more fun and interactive.

Of course, Bianca can never put aside the full phone functionality of her newfound gadget. For Bianca, nothing beats getting in touch with friends and loved ones through an actual conversation.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 hit Samsung stores last April 13, and as a special treat, Samsung is giving out exciting deals for new and proud owners of the latest device.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Samsung launches wireless vacuum tube audio dock

MANILA, Philippines – Samsung Electronics Philippines Corp. (SEPCO) recently launched its new premium Wireless Audio with Dock that incorporates its vacuum tube amplifier technology, offering natural and harmonious sound qualities.

A first-class Wireless Audio with Dock, the DA-E750 is the world’s first dual-docking system for the premium audiophile that supports both Samsung Galaxy devices and Apple iOS devices — via both docked and wireless connectivity.

“The DA-E750 is a world-class audio system that underscores Samsung’s commitment to extend its strong leadership in the premium market,” said Amby Navarro-Molina, SEPCO product marketing head.

“As audio is an integral part of the overall home entertainment experience, we are proud to provide consumers around the world with superior sound quality that can be enjoyed in the home,” she added.

Allowing audio enthusiasts to enjoy music the way it was meant to be heard, Samsung’s new vacuum tube amplifier technology provides a warmer, more natural sound compared to conventional audio systems that use transistors.

By also combining the vacuum tube with a digital amplifier, the DA-E750 reduces unnecessary, harsh sound distortions — while its 2.1-channel woven glass fiber speakers and powerful built-in subwoofer produce 100 watts of crystal-clear sound with enhanced bass for a quality music experience.

Delivering a total wireless solution, the DA-E750, which retails for P29,990, provides superior convenience, supporting wireless audio file playback via AllShare for Samsung Galaxy devices and AirPlay for Apple devices, or via Bluetooth 3.0 for additional devices.

The DA-E750 also features an analog (composite) input and a USB port to play audio files directly from a flash drive, music player or portable hard drive — supporting MP3, WMA and WAV file formats.

The elegant design of the DA-E750 exudes the highest level of sophistication by combining classic design elements with a touch of luxury. The sleek high gloss wood finish is available in a rich mahogany color, which is accentuated by the warm glow from the vacuum tubes inside the docks when in operation.

With the DA-E750 launch, Samsung also released an online commercial video showcasing the spectacular “Flavor of Sound” the wireless Audio with Dock delivers. The video stars George Craig, lead singer of the British indie rock band One Night Only.

“When I first saw Samsung’s Wireless Audio with Dock, I was immediately awe-struck by the sleek, yet retro design,” said Craig. “I became an instant fan after hearing the amazing and smooth sound the DA-E750 delivers, so to help launch the product by partnering with Samsung on this video is both exciting and an honor.”

Other Wireless Audio Dock models are also available such as the DA-E550 (P7,990), DA-E570 (P7,990), and DA-E650 (P12,990).

source: philstar.com

Samsung eyes 10 million mark for Galaxy S3 by end of July

SEOUL – South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone maker, said Monday it expects to have sold 10 million of its newest Galaxy S3 model by the end of July, two months after its launch.

J.K. Shin, head of the mobile communications division, said robust sales of the model would help Samsung’s mobile business post a second-quarter profit bigger than the three months.

“We’re getting more positive reviews for Galaxy S3 than the previous Galaxy S1 and S2 since the release in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia beginning May 29,” Shin said at an event to mark the phone’s domestic release on Monday.

He estimated that global sales of the new phone – currently available in 147 countries –would surpass 10 million next month, including about a million to be sold at home.

“We’re doing fairly well in emerging-economy markets… I think our second-quarter earnings will be better than the first quarter’s, despite the difficult economic situation in Europe,” Shin said.

The company, the world’s biggest technology firm by revenue, posted a record net profit for all its divisions of 5.05 trillion won ($4.44 billion) in the first quarter, thanks largely to strong smartphone sales.

The third version of the Galaxy S series offers face-recognition technology and improved voice-activated controls as well as a more powerful processor that lets users watch video and write emails simultaneously.

It also has a 4.8-inch (12.2-centimeter) screen that is 22 percent larger than the S2, while it can detect eye movements and override the automatic shutdown if the user is looking at the screen.

Samsung shipped 44.5 million smartphones in the first quarter, exceeding the 35.1 million of US arch-rival Apple, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics in April.

Samsung, embroiled in patent lawsuits in 10 nations with Apple, is pinning its hopes on the S3 to further erode its rivals’ market share before the expected new version of Apple’s iPhone 5 this year.

In a rare victory for the Korean firm, a Dutch court last week ruled in favour of Samsung and ordered the US giant to pay unspecified damages for patent infringement.

source: technology.inquirer.net