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Models showcase LG Electronics’ 260 flexible OLED signage displays put together to form a waterfall at the company’s Consumer Electronics Show 2019 exhibition entrance in Las Vegas on Monday. The annual event, which will host over 4,000 companies this year, began yesterday.
Air conditioning company Daikin Malaysia Sdn Bhd, which has allocated a capital expenditure (capex) of RM434 million for the next financial year ending March 31, 2020 (FY20), will ramp up its efforts on driving export growth, in line with its aim for export to contribute 70% of its total sales by FY20, from 65% now. COO Ooi Cheng Suan said products from its flagship factory here, mainly air conditioners for residential (household) use, as well as light commercial and commercial, are exported to 70 countries in the world.
“We are driving export because the Malaysian market is not big and it is limited. To expand, we must go beyond, go out (of Malaysia). Being made in Malaysia, it (our products) is well accepted. In these two years, our ringgit has weakened and this has given us certain advantage when exporting. We become more competitive,” he said.
He said traditionally, the company had been exporting to Europe, with the more prominent countries being Italy, Greece, France, UK, as well as the Middle East. This year, in addition to Central Europe, it has expanded its export to the US and Latin America.
“We want to achieve at least 70% export for this factory here (remaining 30% for local market). As per our plan and budget, we’re on track to move towards 70%,” said Ooi.
He explained that the US-China trade war has given the company an opportunity of exporting into the US due to the imposition of tariffs on products from China, which impacted Daikin China’s export into US.
“Malaysia’s platform is similar to China’s platform, so we can transfer that demand from US (supplied originally by China) to Malaysia. We’re in a good position (to secure that opportunity) because we’re competitive and we’re able to respond fast to changes so there’s a high chance that the demand of US (for Daikin) will shift to Malaysia (from China),” explained Ooi.
In Malaysia, Daikin, the world’s industry leader in air conditioning, prides itself as the number one air conditioner maker in terms of sales turnover and the number of air conditioners sold in the market. Annually, its Sungai Buloh factory produces 1.4 million sets (comprises indoor evaporator and outdoor condenser). Currently the residential segment makes up over 60% of its sales, while the remaining 40% comes from the light commercial, commercial and industrial segments.
Ooi, who is also deputy regional general manager for Asia emerging districts, claims that the Japanese brand Daikin is also the top air conditioner maker in almost all of the markets in Southeast Asia (SEA), based on its survey.
“Some players claim they’re number one at serving only a niche market. Daikin has the full range of air conditioners, from as small as 0.5 horsepower to a few thousand horsepower. We cover the full spectrum of the market,” said Ooi.
The company is expecting to close FY19 with a double-digit growth based on its current sales momentum.
“For the Malaysian market, the situation (sales) is slow, but the upcoming Chinese New Year will spur some buying from consumers. From past experience, when it comes to February and March, the weather turns hot and this will spur impulse buying.
“Air conditioner has become a necessity. The price of air conditioner in Malaysia is not too far reaching that it becomes a luxury item. It has been relatively low, affordable for the public,” said Ooi, adding that globally, demand for air conditioner from developing countries like India and Africa is growing fast.
He stressed on two important pillars for growing the local market, including the introduction of R32 refrigerant products (low global warming potential), as well as educating the market to move to energy-efficient products, such as the Inverter series.
Daikin Malaysia will invest RM100 million annually as capex for facility and machine upgrading.
Its two new factories in Shah Alam and Banting will focus on manufacturing applied products, comprising chillers and air handling units, for large, high rise buildings, shopping centres and industrial use. The Shah Alam factory, which was set up at RM140 million, will start its full-fledged production by 2019 and is expected to have a turnover of RM100 million per year in the beginning.
“This is the only applied factory in SEA Oceania and this will be the factory that will support the whole SEA Oceania. With our plan to expand our applied business in SEA Oceania, we’ve set up our applied regional hub in Malaysia and Singapore to expand the sales in SEA.”
Meanwhile, it will also invest RM125 million to set up a factory in Shah Alam to make electronic devices (air conditioner controllers), which will come into production by 2020. Ooi said this factory will supply to Daikin’s affiliates, of which there are 73 factories in the world.
“Currently we’re already exporting to Daikin factories in Turkey, Vietnam, Czech Republic and the US. We can’t cater to the whole demand of Daikin. These factories that we’re catering for are less than 20% of the demand of Daikin group. A good percentage is still supplied by others,” said Ooi.
It is also allocating RM135 million to set up a centralised logistics centre, which is expected to start operations by early 2020-2021.
In addition, some RM74 million has been budgeted for research & development in FY20.
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s first appearance in the field this year was to celebrate the start of production at a 5G network equipment factory Thursday. His field visit comes as the company puts more weight this year on the 5G network-equipment business, which involves components used in 5G networks. These components are supplied to telecommunications companies.
Lee and several other top executives, including Koh Dong-jin, CEO and president of the IT & mobile division, were present at the celebration ceremony held at the company’s factory and office complex in Suwon, Gyeonggi.
“The 5G market is a new field, and we have to build competence with the mindset of a challenger,” Lee told employees during the event.
Lee and the team of executives stopped by the cafeteria of the complex for lunch, resulting in posts on Instagram featuring Lee and employees.
The manufacturing line for 5G equipment in Suwon is the first in the industry to be designed using “smart factory” principles. It utilizes 5G connections to enhance productivity and reduce the rate of defects.
The company originally manufactured 5G network equipment in Gumi, North Gyeongsang, but had the production line relocated to Suwon, the site of its R&D center. This was done to help create synergies between the manufacturing and R&D facilities, said a spokesman.
Samsung signaled last August that 5G connectivity is one of its four growth engines for the future when it announced a plan to invest $161 billion by 2021.
The business area is receiving considerable attention from global technology companies. 5G connectivity is vital not only to telecommunications in the future, but will also be an essential component of other, related state-of-the-art technologies, such as autonomous cars, AI-powered robots and virtual reality.
Samsung’s presence in the global telecommunications equipment market is relatively low, with a share of around 11 percent for fourth-generation LTE equipment, according to market research firm Dell’Oro. The larger players include Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia, all with shares of more than 25 percent.
The company’s current goal is to hit a 20 percent market share in the 5G equipment market next year.
Samsung has been expanding its client base for 5G equipment mainly in Korea and the United States. Names on the list include SK Telecom, KT, AT&T and Verizon. Samsung hopes to leverage those client relationships to attract other customers.
The company plans to release the Galaxy S10 in March. It will be its first smartphone to support 5G connections.
Kim Young-ki, Samsung’s president of network business, said at an event last November that the company will invest a total of $22 billion to develop 5G-network technology.
“In fact, most of our revenue shortfall to our guidance, and over 100 per cent of our year-over-year worldwide revenue decline, occurred in Greater China across iPhone, Mac and iPad,” he said.
The Apple sales decline in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan would most likely exceed $4.3 billion, roughly equal to the company’s overall drop in revenue.
Previously, Apple had forecast revenue of between $89 billion and $93 billion. Now it expects the figure will be closer to $84 billion, but notes final figures will not be calculated for several weeks.
Cook said the rising tension between the US and China played a part in the declining sales, with traffic to Apple stores in the region declining as the quarter progressed. This, in turn, led to lower than expected iPhone revenue in the region, which was compounded by the stalling iPhone upgrades seen in other markets.
“We believe there are other factors broadly impacting our iPhone performance, including consumers adapting to a world with fewer carrier subsidies, US dollar strength-related price increases, and some consumers taking advantage of significantly reduced pricing for iPhone battery replacements,” Cook explained.
In response to these trends, the business is seeking to make it easier to trade in used iPhones at Apple stores, as well as allow payments to be made over a longer period.
“This is not only great for the environment, it is great for the customer, as their existing phone acts as a subsidy for their new phone,” Cook said.
Despite the slowing traffic, Apple’s other categories grew over the period, with the company’s wearables category growing by almost 50 per cent due to the popularity of Apple Watch and AirPods.
iPhone users are accusing Apple of paying Korean customers less for their trade-ins than the devices are worth, while noting differences between promotions in other countries and those in Korea. If an iPhone owner wants to return an older model when buying a new device, iPhone Korea said it will offer up to a 300,000-won ($268.56) discount on the latest smartphones, the iPhone XS and iPhone XR. Korean customers are outraged.
They claim that the deal has been made available to them a full month later than in other countries. In the United States, Japan and China, trade-in opportunities started in late November. The amount in compensation is also said to be too low.
Apple Korea announced on Dec. 24 that it is taking iPhone trade-ins at its retail store in Garosugil, Seoul, and will continue to do so until late January next year.
If the user returns an older model, it is possible for them to buy the 990,000 won iPhone XR for 690,000 won and the 1.37 million won iPhone XS for 1.07 million won.
Internet community Clien exploded with comments on Dec. 25, the day after the announcement. “I might as well sell it at the Gangbyeon Electronics Mart rather than returning it to Apple,” said one. Another added: “It is disrespecting the customers.”
While iPhone Korea only compensates up to 300,000 won for an iPhone 7+ released two years ago, the price for an iPhone 7+ in the second-hand market near Gangbyeon and Sindorim is around 380,000 won, according to mobile community Cetizen.
If the product is an S class with almost no cracks, the price goes up to 450,000 won.
After typing in the serial number for a black iPhone 7 with 128 gigabytes into the trade-in page on Apple Korea’s website, a reporter received a quote of 174,000 won. In the second-hand market, users can sell the phone for at least at 289,000 won. Apple is offering 115,000 won less for the device.
Lee Doo-hee, a programmer who enjoys using Apple products said, “I can get more money if I sell directly, so I do not feel any need to go to the Apple store in person and exchange my iPhone.”
Apple U.S. announced that it is offering trade-ins of about $300 for those buying an iPhone XR and iPhone XS. This is about 10 percent more than in the Korean market.
NTT Docomo, Japan’s No. 1 mobile company, is offering the iPhone XR for 25,920 yen ($235.05), around 260,000 won, for those signing a two-year contract. No similar discounts are offered in Korea.
“For Apple, Korea is the home turf for Samsung Electronics, Apple’s old enemy,” according to a source in the sector.
“Apple only has to get a fair amount of earnings from hard-core iPhone fans, which possibly account for 15 percent of all mobile communications users in Korea. That is why it is pursuing unfavorable policies, like excluding certain countries from promotions.”
It is believed that the current promotion from Apple Korea is due to the slump in sales of recent iPhones. High prices are seen as the main cause of the recent slowing of sales growth.
Kuo Ming-chi, a Taiwanese Apple expert as well as an analyst at TF International Securities, has revised his first-quarter 2019 sales volume estimate for iPhones from a 47 million to 52 million range to a 38 million to 42 million range.
A report written by Kuo was titled: “Shipments of iPhones in 2019 could be below 190 million.”
The market value of Apple exceeded one trillion dollars in September last year. It is now around $700 billion.
LG U+ said Wednesday that it has demonstrated 10 times faster download times compared to 4G LTE on its 5G network. While 4G LTE offers 133.43 megabits per second download speeds on average, according to data from the Ministry of Science and ICT, LG U+ said it realized 1.33 gigabits per second on its 5G network.
LG U+ claims it is nearly the fastest speed consumers can practically experience on 5G. Next year, when 5G is commercialized for smartphones, the smallest carrier in the country projects data download speeds will increase to as fast as 2 gigabits per second when the 5G network will be coupled with the 4G LTE network.
LG U+ believes 5G is its chance to move up the mobile carrier ranking, currently dominated by SK Telecom and KT.
Samsung Electronics will supply next-generation microprocessor chips to IBM, which will use the chips for artificial intelligence (AI) computing and cloud system applications, both companies said Friday. The product Samsung will manufacture for IBM is a seven-nanometer processor made by extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology. The seven-nanometers in the name refers to the width of the circuit through which electricity flows on the semiconductor. The dominant product until recently has been rated 10-nanometer.
Narrower circuits ensure faster data processing speeds, less electricity consumption and higher area efficiency, with more transistors printed on a given amount of silicon, the base material for semiconductors.
IBM said in a press release that the strategic partnership will position the two companies to lead “the new era of high-performance computing specifically designed for AI.”
“IBM selected Samsung to build our next generation of microprocessors because they share our level of commitment to the performance, reliability, security and innovation that will position our clients for continued success on the next generation of IBM hardware,” said John Acocella, vice president of Enterprise Systems and Technology Development for IBM Systems.
The U.S. company and Samsung have been research and development partners for 15 years.
For Samsung, the deal is a significant milestone for its foundry business, which is to manufacture semiconductors for external clients that do not have chip fabrication facilities.
The company is already a leader in DRAM and NAND memory chips, but it is now focusing on the fast-growing foundry market. IHS Markit estimates that the subsector will grow an average of 7.8 percent a year until 2021-which is faster than 5.3 percent expected for DRAMs and 6.1 percent for NANDs.
Samsung is currently ranked global No. 4 among foundries, with a market share of less than 10 percent. As it works to climbing up the rankings, a client like IBM helps establish momentum for future deals.
In February, Samsung signed a foundry deal with Qualcomm to supply seven-nanometer processors for 5G mobile devices. The company hopes the seven-nanometer processor chip will help as it works to expand its market share. It is currently one of two foundries known to manufacture the product. The other is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the No. 1 semiconductor foundry with more than 50 percent market share.
Samsung’s EUV lithography technology was developed earlier this year to mass produce seven-nanometer semiconductors, as the conventional way of printing circuits on 10-nano chips were not sophisticated enough to print thinner circuits.
A new facility specializing in EUV lithography is under construction at Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, and is due for completion by the second half of next year. Samsung also revealed in May that it plans for the mass production of three-nanometer processors by 2020.
Samsung Electronics started domestic sales of its mid-range Galaxy A9 smartphone today – the company’s first model to be equipped with four rear cameras. The Galaxy A9 was first revealed in October in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and has already started sales in China, India and several countries across Southeast Asia and Europe. In Korea, the device will cost 599,500 won ($530), nearly half the price of Samsung’s most recent premium phone release, the Galaxy Note9.
Overseas, the A9 comes with either six or eight gigabytes of RAM, but in Korea only the six-gigabyte option will be available. The device comes with 128 gigabytes of data storage, which is expandable to 512 gigabytes with a microSD card. There are three color options – black, blue and baby pink.
Its most notable feature is its five cameras – one on the front and four on the back – which are the reason it is known as a “quad camera” smartphone. The front camera can take photos up to 24 megapixels and comes with a function to blur out the background when taking a selfie.
Until a few years ago, Samsung was one of the top manufacturers of smartphones along with Apple. Recently, its global performance has dwindled as demand for up-scale premium phones have retreated. Another big threat is the advance of Chinese manufacturers like Huawei that upped their game in technology and released a wide range of mid-priced smartphones. Budget phones are especially important in that they cater to the massive Chinese and Indian markets, explaining why global smartphone makers are getting so competitive in the price sector. The main rear camera can also take photos up to 24 megapixels with a very low aperture of F1.7, which means the camera will perform better in darker environments. The other three cameras have slightly different functions.
A 10-megapixel telephoto camera offers a 2X optical zoom lens, while an eight-megapixel ultra-wide camera can capture a up to 120 degrees. The final camera, a five-megapixel depth camera, is used to blur out the background of an image.
Despite being a budget model, the A9 is equipped with smart camera functions normally found in top-of-the-range models. The “intelligent camera” function can optimize an image’s brightness and contrast after automatically recognizing the object or scene. It also alerts the user if the image is shaky or somebody blinks.
Samsung said in a statement that it anticipates the five cameras to make the A9 “an optimal model for generations of ‘visual communication’ who mainly communicate with photos and videos.”
The inclusion of quad cameras on a budget model reflects Samsung’s shifting smartphone strategy that Koh Dong-jin, CEO and head of the IT giant’s mobile business, stressed earlier this year – to apply state-of-the-art functions to mid-priced models.
“In the past, I brought the new technology and differentiation to the flagship model and then moved to the mid-end. But I have changed my strategy from this year to bring technology and differentiation points starting from the mid-end,” Koh said to CNBC in an interview in October.
The A9 isn’t the first affordable Samsung phone with high-end features. On Dec. 10, it unveiled the Galaxy A8s, a smartphone in the mid-price range and the first to have a so-called hole display. Its screen covers the phone’s entire front, except for a small hole in the display’s corner for the front camera. The unpacking event, which was Samsung’s first in China, also sent a signal that Samsung is determined to win back market share in the country.
“You might think this is an ordinary unpacking event, but it’s more of an occasion to send an ambitious message to you all – Samsung Electronics will embark on a full-fledged competition with Chinese manufacturers,” said Kwon Gye-hyun, the company’s vice president for its China business, during the event.
The number of artificial intelligence (AI) speakers in Korea is expected to reach the 8 million mark in the new year as the devices gain popularity, a report by a local digital media lab said Sunday. According to the findings by KT Group affiliate Nasmedia, some 40 percent of the country’s 20 million households will likely have an AI speaker in 2019. The numbers represent a sharp increase from just 1 million units supplied in 2017 and the nearly 3 million that have reached the market this year.
“The rise in demand comes from greater choice in terms of the products being offered, as well as more upgraded features that have made the AI speakers more attractive to ordinary consumers,” the 2019 digital media and marketing forecast report claimed.
It added that greater competition among manufacturers to secure the growing market is fueling the spread of such smart devices.
Korean companies – such as SK Telecom, KT, Naver and Kakao – have all rushed to release new AI speakers.
Nasmedia said that, in particular, there has been considerable competition in the area of children-related content and audio shopping services with companies vying with one another to “lock” customers into their ecosystem.
The speakers have been marketed as personal home assistants for adults and even as private tutors for small kids.
Xiaomi is all set to convert its India arm into an end-to-end consumer durables company. According to a report, Xiaomi officials are currently identifying potential categories including air-conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, laptops and small appliances like vacuum cleaners and water purifiers for the Indian market. All the products will be smart appliances based on Internet of Things (IoT) or which can connect to the internet and other devices, and operated remotely.
Xiaomi entered the Indian television market in February this year with products 30-50 percent cheaper than the top three brands — Samsung, LG and Sony. It eventually expanded TV sales to offline stores and started assembling them in India in partnership with contract manufacturer Dixon. It recently announced having shipped more than a million televisions into the Indian market.
The company will follow the same model for appliances. The products will be priced aggressively in line with its announced strategy of keeping just 5 percent profit margin for itself and start local assembly after gaining some scale to take advantage of Make in India duty benefits, according to the report.
DJI and SkyPixel, the world’s most popular aerial photography community, are kicking off their annual SkyPixel Aerial Photo & Video Contest. Running from December 18, 2018 to February 18, 2019, the contest is a showcase for the world captured from above, and welcomes submissions from professional photographers, videographers, aerial enthusiasts and content creators around the globe.
The 2018 SkyPixel Aerial Photo & Video Contest consists of two storytelling formats, one in photography and the other in video form. There is no restriction on the type or brand of aerial equipment, and participants can submit as many photos or videos as they wish.
Contestants can win a range of prizes, including a Hasselblad X1D-50c camera, DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone and the new Osmo Pocket three-axis stabilized gimbal. In addition, SkyPixel will organize a series of exhibitions at different DJI Flagship Stores in 2019 to showcase the winning pieces. Select work will also be featured and introduced at workshops hosted by winners and professional photographers in conjunction with SkyPixel.
“DJI has redefined how a drone should look like and what it can do. The compact size, portability and powerful imaging system of our drones have also made capturing amazing aerial content easier than ever before. Now anyone can take their creativity and inspirations to the skies,” said Ferdinand Wolf, Creative Director, DJI Europe. “We are seeing more and more aerial photographers and content creators sharing their unique perspectives and stories of the world via SkyPixel. With this contest, we hope to encourage more people to learn about aerial technology, and together embrace this new creative way of storytelling.”
Since 2014, the SkyPixel online community (www.skypixel.com) has attracted professional aerial photographers and content creators from more than 140 countries. SkyPixel contests over the past three years have received over 100,000 submissions, a huge collection of extraordinary footage focusing on nature, culture, architecture, and original aerial masterpieces.
Details of the 2018 SkyPixel Aerial Photo & Video Contest
The video contest consists of five categories:
The photo contest consists of four categories:
No matter what categories participants decide to enter, they should always fly with caution, observe their flight environment and follow local regulations at all times.
From these nine categories, SkyPixel and DJI will give away 49 awards, including two Grand Prizes, and nine first, second and third prizes in each category. There will also be 10 Nominated Entries that are selected by a panel of judges and 10 by popular vote, measured by which submissions get the most likes during the contest period. Contest awards include the Hasselblad X1D-50c camera, DJI Mavic 2 Pro, Osmo Pocket and other products worth a total of approximately $120, 000 USD.
This year, the judging panel is composed of award-winning directors, photographers and influencers, including Toby Strong, a documentary photographer who has won many Emmy and BAFTA awards, and Ben Nott, one of Australia’s most prestigious directors of photography and an ACS member.
Gadget retailer Copperwired is set to invest THB165 million (US$5.036 million) opening 30 new .Life stores by the end of next year. The new .Life stores include a new 310sqm flagship at CentralWorld, described as the “largest gadget lifestyle shop featuring Internet of Things (IoT) technology in Thailand”, which opened in September.
The brand’s public listing on the Thai exchange is expected next year.
“With the adoption of 5G, the number of connected devices will increase, and IoT in the form of connected toys, smart homes and smart transport and new demand for product categories will rise accordingly,” said Copperwired CEO Paramate Rienjaroensuk.
The company expects .Life stores to boost its income by more than 20 per cent in the current financial year to more than THB800 million (US$24.414 million).
The wearables market has grown over the past decade, and now a new generation of tech wearables is looking to differentiate itself by looking to the buzzy wellness industry for growth. The industry and definition of wellness has expanded to incorporate aspects of mental health, fitness and physical health, beauty and more, resulting in a new class of consumerism and ample opportunity for companies to tap into it.
In the past few years, wearables brands Bellabeat, Oura and Motiv have launched, focusing more on a holistic approach to health and less on being performance-oriented.
Instead of fitness bracelets, they’re packaged as necklaces, rings or water bottles. And, in addition to the usual sleep tracking, heart rate and pedometer functions, their features include guided meditation, menstrual-cycle tracking and integration with Amazon Alexa.
“You see so many fitness and wellness [wearable] brands right now, and they are uniquely aware of their competitors. They are thinking outside the box in order to be the best,” said Aimee Gaudin, international head of marketing at Smartech stores.
Smartech itself is designed to bridge the gap between lifestyle and technology.
In store, it sits between Selfridges’ tech, home goods and lifestyle departments. Currently, Smartech is negotiating with Selfridges to display and sell Motiv rings in Selfridges’ beauty section as a marketing opportunity for the brand, Gaudin said.
“A lot of high-end department stores focus on fashion and don’t have much tech, so I always [position] our products as a fashion product, but for Motiv, I will [position] it as a beauty product first,” she said.
Motiv’s customer base runs the gamut from “tech nerds to trendy moms,” according to Tejash Unadkat, CEO of Motiv.
The company had initially anticipated that it would attract a similar customer base to Fitbit, which is known for its fitness fanatics, but in fact the brand “rarely” attracts them, he said.
Motiv has consciously marketed itself as a holistic device, with a strategy of being placed in mainstream stores, instead of fitness or early-adopter tech ones, in order to continue to expand its customer base. For example, last month the brand began retailing in Nordstrom in its seasonal health and wellness section, showcasing the sleep-tracking function of the device.
“Internally, we say the Motiv ring is not a fitness ring but a smart ring that has features around security, convenience and health,” said Unadkat.
Overall, the wearables market is expected to see $42 billion in sales in 2019, according to Gartner, with $16.2 billion specifically on smartwatches.
Fitbit earned its first quarterly profit since the third quarter of 2016 in early November by focusing less on fitness and more on mainstream smartwatches.
Bellabeat, the female-focused wellness wearable, is also delving into the watch category with the launch of Time on Dec. 6, which looks like a classic analog timepiece.
Since the brand launched in 2013, it has primarily focused on associating itself as a beauty and wellness device, according to Urska Srsen, founder and CEO of Bellabeat.
“It’s very much a beauty product because beauty is a strong component of women’s wellness,” she said. “We see beauty as a reflection of the love and self-care you invest in yourself.”
The brand is sold through retailers like Neiman Marcus and John Lewis in the U.K., in addition to its own e-commerce site. Its other smart products include a water bottle and a clip-on device that can also be worn as a necklace or bracelet.
Bellabeat markets itself to the average woman who is neither a tech early-adopter nor a gadget enthusiast, Srsen said. Instead, they look for women who are equally interested in fashion and beauty as they are in wellness.
By focusing on the $4.2 trillion dollar wellness market, these brands are attempting to avoid the pitfalls that traditional fitness tracker companies like Fitbit have experienced in the past with slow growth due to a niche focus on performance-oriented devices.
“This is something we have to make retailers understand,” Srsen said. “Our customers are shopping in wellness and beauty; they aren’t looking in the tech and fitness section. We aren’t just educating retailers on where they should be displayed, but we’re also educating them on a new category around the intersection of tech, beauty, wellness and fashion.”
LG U+ CEO and Vice Chairman Ha Hyun-hwoi has made it clear that the carrier does not think there are any security threats related to its use of Huawei equipment in its 5G infrastructure. Ha made the statement during a year-end press briefing on Wednesday in Yongsan District, central Seoul, rebuffing claims by some lawmakers that there is a risk of security leaks through the use of the Chinese tech giant’s equipment in the network. LG U+ currently partners with Huawei as well as Samsung Electronics, Ericsson and Nokia for its 5G infrastructure.
According to Ha, the Chinese IT company has already applied for security certification of its 5G network equipment from an international certifying body in Spain. The CEO added the public will be able to see how secure the equipment is once the evaluations are complete next year.
“Security concerns apply to every equipment vendor we partner with, not only Huawei, and we need to thoroughly verify all the equipment [we use] is secure,” Ha said. “There are roughly 170 countries that are already using Huawei’s network equipment, and there hasn’t been any security problems reported so far.”
Locally, Huawei has set up equipment that abides by over 70 security guidelines set by the Korea Internet & Security Agency, according to LG U+.
The main reason for the carrier taking the risk of using the controversial equipment is because 5G infrastructure needs to be built in conjunction with the existing network equipment for 4G long term evolution (LTE), some of which LG U+ also bought from Huawei. Ha said price, technological competitiveness and the ability to deliver the equipment in a timely manner were also considered when choosing the vendor.
LG U+ has built 5,500 base stations to service the next-generation 5G network as of Wednesday, while its local competitors have reportedly established less than 1,000 5G base stations.
On why the mobile carrier is rushing to establish its 5G infrastructure, Ha said, “It is important to have a head start to have a competitive edge in [5G] services considering the quality tests we need to go through before March [when the high-speed network is commercialized for smartphones].”
Ha said the company invested roughly 4 trillion won ($3.6 billion) to set up its 5G infrastructure, including at 5G spectrum auctions.
The company said it hopes to take up a larger share of the market, which is dominated by SK Telecom, with 50 percent, and KT, with 30 percent.
“In July 2011, when we first began the LTE service, our local market share was 17.7 percent, but the share increased to 21.2 percent over time as of the end of October,” LG U+ said in statement. “We think next year could be the best time to shake up the competing structure.”
The carrier is preparing a 5G-based smart factory service with its affiliates LG Electronics and IT service company LG CNS, targeting enterprise customers. For individual customers, LG U+ is focusing on augmented reality and virtual reality content that can offer an immersive experience of watching sports games and K-pop concerts at home.
The CEO also commented on speculations that the carrier will acquire paid TV service operator CJ Hello. Ha said it has opened up its options to cable TV operators other than CJ Hello and plans to finalize the deal within the first half of next year. Industry sources, however, still say negotiations between the two parties have nearly come to a close and final results are likely to come out around March.
LG has established a new research laboratory committed to advances in fridge, oven and other home-appliance technologies. LG Electronics opened the 6,760-square-foot Food Research Institute on Monday at Changwon, South Gyeongsang. At the center, researchers will develop technologies that can be applied to the company’s home appliances, such as refrigerators, kimchi and other specialty food fridges, ovens and electric stove tops.
Food preservation, the fermentation of kimchi and food preparation will be some of the focuses.
The company said researchers will work closely with academics from Seoul National University and Konkuk University, as well as experts from government and private agencies, such as the Rural Development Administration, the Korea Food Research Institute and the World Institute of Kimchi.
LG Electronics often mentions advanced technologies in its marketing materials, using the technology to set itself apart from competitors.
According to the company, LG refrigerators run on inverter linear compressors, which are 18 percent more energy efficient and create less noise than comparable gas compressors. Its kimchi refrigerators maintain temperatures of 6.5 degrees Celsius (43.7 degrees Fahrenheit), the optimal level for kimchi. At that temperature, the growth of a lactic-acid bacteria that creates a sour taste is suppressed. LG’s electric stove tops can cook food up to 2.3 times faster than gas ranges, the company boasts.
The facility at Changwon is not the first research lab established by the company to further develop its home appliances. In February, LG Electronics opened a water research lab committed to the making of better water purifiers. In October, it opened a center dedicated to air science to advance its air purification technologies.
“We will continue investing in research and development related to food, water and air technologies,” said Song Dae-hyun, head of LG Electronics’ Home Appliance & Air Solutions.