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Category: Electronics

Retail News Asia is committed to providing both local and global retailers with the latest Electronics news throughout the Asian market. This on a daily base.

  • LG, E-mart develops smart-cart robot

    LG, E-mart develops smart-cart robot

    LG Electronics has signed an agreement with E-mart to develop a new type of service robot that can assist shoppers at its South Korean supermarkets. Under the agreement, the two companies will develop what they call a smart-cart robot that can automatically identify obstacles and follow shoppers as they walk through aisles. LG said the new robot will free visitors from the hassle of pushing heavy carts by themselves.

    The South Korean tech giant said the robot will be developed by its research lab, which has been releasing various robots under the CLOi brand.

    So far, LG has released eight different products under the brand, which are suited for different tasks, including guiding, cleaning and even mowing lawns. The company unveiled the CLOi SuitBot, which can help workers lift and move heavy objects easier as well.

    LG said it has been making efforts to bolster its robot business by joining forces with different clients, including airports, bakeries and retail shops.

    CLOi stands for clever, clear, close operating intelligence, LG said.

    The company has been making investments in robotic firms, including Robotis, AI startup Acryl and US-based robot maker Bossa Nova Robotics.

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  • Latest iPhone models sell well in first week out in Korea

    Latest iPhone models sell well in first week out in Korea

    After a week of presales, Apple’s new series of iPhones officially rolled out in the Korean market Friday. The response for the three phones – iPhone XS, XS Max, and the budget XR model – has been good.  According to local mobile carriers, the trio attracted the same number of or slightly more preorders than the previous iPhone generation: the iPhone X and the iPhone 8.

    “Overall, the new phones are generating more interest than the previous series,” a spokesperson from KT said. “Though the iPhone XS is getting more attention than the XR.”

    Presales data from Korea’s largest mobile carrier SK Telecom released Friday shows that 62 percent of the preorders were for iPhone XS, while 26 percent were for iPhone XS Max and 12 percent for the iPhone XR.

    The most popular color option was gold for iPhone XS and XS Max, followed by space gray and silver. For iPhone XR, black and white models led.

    The new phones are big with the young. About 30 percent of the early buyers were women in their 20s, according to SK Telecom. People in their 20s including men accounted for half of all customers making early reservations for the iPhones.

    “Younger people seem to be more interested in buying the new iPhones,” SK Telecom said in statement.

    As for storage, the 256 gigabyte (GB) option was the most popular for both iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. Considering users have to pay over 1.8 million won (＄1,611) for the 512GB option, many customers favored the slightly less pricey option. For iPhone XR, the mid-priced 128GB option was more popular than units with 64GB or 256GB of storage.

    It will take time to judge the true demand for the new phones from Apple, and questions are being raised as to whether the brand is up against the limits of efficiency gains and losing momentum.

    Apple posted ＄14.1 billion in net profit in the third quarter, up 32 percent year on year. Investors focused on weak unit sales and weaker-than-expected revenue guidance for the fourth quarter. Apple said it sold 46.89 million iPhones in the third quarter, a mere 0.4 percent increase year on year and below analyst expectations of 47.5 million unit sales. The revenue increase came from higher pricing.

    The U.S. phone maker also announced that starting next year it will not be reporting a breakdown of sales by product line. Luca Maestri, chief financial officer at Apple, said in a conference call Thursday that unit sales are no longer a good measure of the company’s performance.

    Apple stock fell by as much as 7.4 percent in aftermarket trading.

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  • LG Electronics launches new design

    LG Electronics launches new design

    LG Electronics has introduced a premium brand that combines furniture design with home electronics. The company rolled out four products under the LG Objet name at a press conference held Thursday in Gangnam District, southern Seoul: a mini refrigerator, an air purifier, a speaker and a television.

    “The thing about home electronics is that they are placed mostly in kitchens or living rooms but rarely inside bedrooms,” said Song Dae-hyun, LG’s president for home appliances. “Bedrooms, on the other hand, only have furniture, so in the last few years, we thought about ways to make home electronics coexist in that space.”

    All four items are covered with hard wood.

    Another way in which LG worked to make the appliances look more like furniture was to reduce the size of external features typical to electronic devices, like buttons or small screens. They are simplified or hidden in less visible areas of the product. An exception is the television, with its 65-inch screen, but LG added a furniture-like touch to it by placing a cabinet behind a sliding television screen.

    The fridge and the air purifier won Red Dot and iF design awards. Architect and industrial designer Stefano Giovannoni was involved in the development of the products.

    In terms of function, LG utilized technology to make the devices more appropriate for bedrooms.

    A compressor is a core component in a refrigerator, and it tends to be noisy. LG Objet’s refrigerator utilizes the type of cooling found in wine cellars to make the product quiet.

    For customers using the refrigerator or the air purifier as a bedside table, LG enabled a corner of the top surface to work as a wireless charger for portable devices.

    Song said during the press conference that he believes affluent customers in their 50s and 60s with strong purchasing power will be a source of demand as they look for ways to decorate their private spaces.

    The refrigerator and the air purifier are priced at 1.99 million won ($1,760); the speaker, 1.49 million won; and the television, 9.99 million won. The products were made available for sale at LG Best Shops starting Thursday.

    This is LG’s second high-end home appliances brand after the LG Signature series, introduced in 2016. Apart from sales, the other goal of LG’s premium product expansion is to maintain a leadership in the sector.

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  • Apple profit driven by higher iPhone models

    Apple profit driven by higher iPhone models

    Tech giant Apple Inc. may not have sold as many iPhones during the quarter ending September 30, but the company’s pricier models are driving its profits higher than ever. The California-based company reported it sold about 46,889 iPhones during the quarter, almost the same number of iPhones sold in the previous corresponding period.

    Apple was selling its iPhone ASP at $793 during the quarter compared to the $618 price of the unit in the corresponding quarter a year ago. The company has also introduced the iPhone XS in September at a price starting $999 and the iPhone XS Max which costs about $100 more than the XS model.

    The tech company has posted a 20 per cent increase in its quarterly revenue for the quarter to $62.9 billion, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $2.91, up 41 per cent.

    International sales accounted for 61 per cent of the quarter’s revenue.

    Apple’s services revenue has seen a 27-per cent increase of $10 billion.

    “We’re thrilled to report another record-breaking quarter that caps a tremendous fiscal 2018, the year in which we shipped our two billionth iOS device, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the App Store and achieved the strongest revenue and earnings in Apple history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

    Cook said with their recently introduced new versions of iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and Mac, and the company’s four operating systems, they have entered the holiday season with their “strongest lineup of products and services ever.”

    “We concluded a record year with our best September quarter ever, growing double digits in every geographic segment. We set September quarter revenue records for iPhone and Wearables and all-time quarterly records for Services and Mac,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We generated $19.5 billion in operating cash flow and returned over $23 billion to shareholders in dividends and share repurchases in the September quarter, bringing total capital returned in fiscal 2018 to almost $90 billion.”

    Apple is looking at a revenue of between $89 billion and $93 billion for the first quarter of the 2019 fiscal year, a gross margin of 38 per cent and 38.5 per cent, and operating expenses between $8.7 billion and $8.8 billion.

    Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.73 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on November 15.

    Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, said the quarter’s results underlines all of the innovation the company has put into its suite of products over the past year.

    “Admittedly, the new iPhone XS and XS Max versions, along with Apple Watch Series 4, were only available at the very end of this quarter, but we still believe they had a positive material impact on sales,” Saunders said.

    Saunders said with the tech giant’s strong release of products, the potential launch of new services, and more sessions being added to better stores, Apple has set itself up for another year of growth.

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  • Make Vietnam your largest strategic base, PM urges Samsung

    Make Vietnam your largest strategic base, PM urges Samsung

    PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc has suggested that Samsung expands its scale to make Vietnam the group’s largest strategic base. Receiving Lee Jae Yong, vice chairman of Samsung Group, in Hanoi on Tuesday, Phuc said Samsung should not just stop at making Vietnam its largest smartphone production base.

    He suggested the South Korean giant expands its business to other major fields like semiconductors, infrastructure and energy in Vietnam rather than focusing mainly on manufacturing and assembling electronic products, as it has been doing so far.

    A statement posted on the government’s website cited the prime minister as saying that Samsung should work towards building its largest strategic base in the country.

    He also wanted Samsung to continue providing practical support in terms of training and technology transfer to assist Vietnam’s supporting industry.

    As Samsung is making a significant contribution to developing e-government in South Korea, the PM suggested it does the same for Vietnam.

    He promised that the Vietnamese government will keep creating favorable conditions for Samsung’s operations in the country.

    Samsung Electronics Co. has invested $17.3 billion in eight factories and one research and development center in Vietnam, creating jobs for more than 160,000 locals.

    Exports from Samsung Electronics’ factories in Vietnam totaled $54 billion last year, it said.

    In April, CEO Koh Dong-jin of Samsung Electronics told PM Phuc that the company was determined to further expand production in Vietnam.

    He said Samsung will recruit more Vietnamese employees and develop electronics in smart cities in Bac Ninh province in the northern region and other places.

    Samsung is the largest foreign investor in Vietnam and accounts for around a quarter of the country’s total export revenue. It operates two cellphone factories in Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen provinces in northern Vietnam.

    The factories produce around half of all the cellphones that Samsung supplies to the global market.

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  • WK Life launches its flagship store at Mall of India

    WK Life launches its flagship store at Mall of India

    Electronics and accessories retailer WK Life is launching its first Indian flagship at DLF Mall of India, Noida. The firm is entering the Indian market on the strength of its more than 1000 outlets in 60 countries worldwide. The 1000sqft flagship stocks a broad range of the brand’s products designed according to the ideas of its customers.

    WK Life director Rohit Sahni said the launch of the company’s first store in India is a significant achievement. “The decision to enter the Indian market has been driven by the anticipated growth in this untapped sector which is worth ₹10,000 crore.”

    WK Life retails bluetooth speakers, laptop accessories, travel luggage and gear, household electronic articles and car accessories.

  • Xiaomi is coming to UK

    Xiaomi is coming to UK

    Xiaomi will open its first store in the UK next week. The fast-growing Chinese electronics company will also sell its smartphones through the Three network, giving the brand exposure in hundreds of stores across the UK and in the Republic of Ireland.

    The Xiaomi UK launch follows openings in Spain and Paris as it joins other major global phone brands fighting for European market share.

    The first store, to be located in Westfield London, will open on November 10 and besides smartphones, will sell consumer electronics and accessories.

    In a Tweet, Xiaomi global spokesperson Donovan Sung wrote: “Excited to announce that Xiaomi will be officially entering the UK. See you all in London!”

    Just eight years after its launch, Xiaomi is now sold in 80 countries and boasts 200 million users. Already the fourth-largest smartphone brand in the world, behind Samsung, Huawei and Apple, Xiaomi sold 28.5 million handsets in the first quarter of this year.

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  • Xiaomi’s Pocophone F1 to go on sale next month in Korea

    Xiaomi’s Pocophone F1 to go on sale next month in Korea

    Xiaomi’s affordable smartphone Pocophone F1 is arriving in Korea next month. The Pocophone F1, the first smartphone from Xiaomi’s sub-brand Poco Global, was first unveiled in early August. The F1 will cost 429,000 won ($376) here, around one-third of the price of an Apple iPhone XS and half the price of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Note 9.

    The phone has already proved to be a success in other markets, especially in India, where it raised 30 billion won in sales within the first five minutes.

    The F1 comes with six gigabytes of RAM and three storage options: 64, 128 or 256 gigabytes. In Korea, only the 64 gigabytes will be available for purchase. SK Telecom, KT and LG U+ will start receiving preorders from Nov. 12.

    Jay Mani, the head of product for Poco Global, said the core motivation for developing the Pocophone F1 was the market trend where fierce competition drives manufacturers to add all kinds of new functions and features that aren’t relevant to everybody.

    “So the phones you have today – they have all these new functions but many do not appreciate them, nor are they excited about them, and yet the prices have come up to the current level,” he said in a press conference held in southern Seoul on Monday. “We wanted to buck this trend.”

    The Pocophone F1 focuses on performance. Inside its plastic body, the F1 uses the same processor chip as the Galaxy Note9 and LG Electronics’ latest V40: the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845. Its battery storage is 4,000-milliampere hour, larger than most phones released this year and equivalent to the Note9. To ensure its high speed, the F1 has a cooling system that keeps the phone’s temperature down. The hotter a device, the slower it gets, said Mani.

    However, it also adds some of the core features used in competitors’ top phones today. For example, the artificial intelligence-embedded camera can add 25 filters while taking a photo by automatically perceiving what the object is, while a camera on the front of the device allows for face recognition.

    “Reaching out to loyalists, that’s something that takes time, but there are also a lot of people who we can make think: ‘Does [my phone and its price] make sense?’” said Mani.

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  • Shibuya Apple store reopens after a year of renovation

    Shibuya Apple store reopens after a year of renovation

    The Shibuya Apple store in Tokyo has reopened today with striking modern styling, coinciding with the release of the iPhone XR. The new four-storey design features dramatic natural lighting and a new spiral staircase, described as “stunning” by local media. The store, which reserves substantial space for back-of-house activities, took 11 months to transform, during which time two further stores were opened in Japan.

    The original Shibuya store, which opened in 2005 as the fourth in Japan, was also well-known for its distinctive spiral staircase, reflective of Apple’s retail aesthetics at the time. The new design is closer in look to that of the Steve Jobs Theatre.

    Comparing the original design with the revamp offers a unique perspective into Apple’s evolving retail architecture. The earlier version of the store, optimised for the iPad era, has been enlarged vertically rather than relocated to more expansive premises, indicating the importance to Apple of the location over the venue’s suitability for the brand’s contemporary retail features such as its video wall, which is conspicuously absent in Shibuya.

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  • LG Electronics starts venture to make in-cabin electronics

    LG Electronics starts venture to make in-cabin electronics

    LG Electronics said Thursday it will establish a joint venture with Germany’s Lufthansa Technik, which will be devoted to developing in-cabin electronics systems. The new venture, whose name has not yet been decided, will focus on developing in-cabin solutions utilizing LG Electronics’ technologies, including its OLED displays.

    Lufthansa Technik is a subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Germany’s largest air carrier.

    The new company will kick off in the first half of 2019, and will be based in Hamburg, Germany. LG did not reveal detailed conditions of the agreement, including the size of the deal.

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  • Fair to screen startup hosted by LG

    Fair to screen startup hosted by LG

    Technology-related subsidiaries of LG hosted a fair on Monday in which 20 local start-ups presented their cutting-edge developments in areas such as autopilot technologies, artificial intelligence and big data. The small firms are seeking partnerships with and support from the fourth-largest conglomerate in Korea.

    LG picked the start-ups jointly with the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), hoping to revitalize local start-up ecosystem.

    The conglomerate is providing a venue for the fledgling firms to mingle with their larger counterparts and find new business opportunities.

    LG subsidiaries participating in the event include LG Electronics, LG Display, LG Innotek, LG Chem, LG U+ and LG CNS.

    Executives and researchers from those companies as well as KITA CEO Kim Young-ju paid a visit to the start-up fair, which took place at the LG Science Park in Magok, western Seoul, and had a closer look at technologies and services featured.

    Funnel, for instance, has developed a voice-recognition system that automatically collects information from television broadcasts. The resulting database can be used for artificial-intelligence smart speakers and voice-command chat bots.

    Venta VR owns a technology that is able to tape high-resolution 3D videos and calibrate the video images afterwards in a way that enhances the level of immersion and minimizes visual fatigue.

    LG will offer some of the participating start-ups office and research space inside the LG Science Park as well as technology-related consulting and funds.

    Companies under the LG umbrella have been increasing support for start-ups.

    LG Electronics is backing four start-ups that are in the web operating system business, whereas LG CNS and LG Display have been running their own programs.

    LG-led tech fairs aimed at locating and supporting promising local start-ups have been held in the United States, Germany, Israel and Russia.

    With a German start-up discovered during a tech fair in Europe, LG developed a linear compressor technology for refrigerators.

    LG says it will apply the cooperation system it developed overseas to Korean start-ups and smaller companies.

    “Future cooperation with start-ups will propel their global outreach,” said an executive at the LG Science Park.

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  • Samsung offers laptop with millennial style

    Samsung offers laptop with millennial style

    Samsung Electronics introduced on Monday a laptop it believes will appeal to millennials.  The 13.3-inch computer, the Samsung Notebook Flash, has rounded key caps reminiscent of old typewriters. Its palm rest has a coarse fabric, not conventional metal, which feels comparatively warm, Samsung explained.  The new device is based on the Windows 10 operating system.

    “We worked with Samsung Design Europe to come up with a refined European model that millennials would want,” said Lee Min-chul, managing director of the company’s PC business unit at a launch event in northern Seoul on Monday.

    The laptop comes in three cover designs: linen white, twill charcoal and soft coral. It is powered by Intel’s latest gigabit WiFi chip, rated for download speeds of up to 1.7 gigabytes per second – a speed that Lee says is currently the fastest.

    The laptop supports universal flash storage, a flash storage that achieves five times the reading speeds of MicroSD technology.

    Fingerprint login capabilities and a secret folder, in which the user can save important files, contribute to a high level of security.

    But at 1.37 kilograms (three pounds), the new device is relatively heavy, weighing much more than typical one kilogram ultra-light laptops.

    For Samsung, a top global vendor of smartphones, semiconductors and TVs, laptops are a weak spot.

    The tech giant ranks behind the six largest players – HP, Lenovo, Dell, Apple, Asus and Acer. Those six have about 89 percent of the global market, according to TrendForce in a February report.

    Samsung, LG and others make up the remaining 11 percent.

    Samsung currently retails laptops only in Korea, the United States, China and Brazil. A full 45 percent of all laptops sold globally are sold in these markets.

    Samsung’s annual shipment of laptops totals about 3.2 million units, according to the company.

    The target for Flash laptop sales in the four target markets is one million units.

    Despite its minimal global presence, Samsung is committed to the laptop business, said Lee, citing the device’s “connectivity” with other devices.

    “PCs are central when it comes to IT devices they support – such as monitors, printers and even mobile phones,” Lee said.

    Laptops have been evolving in different ways in recent years, and Samsung wants to develop hybrid products, including laptops with foldable displays.

    “But it’s not only about hardware. It’s important to provide new usability,” he added.

    Coming in two storage sizes – 64 gigabytes and 128 gigabytes – the Flash laptop carries a price tag of 810,000 won ($717).

    But a model specifically designed for wireless operator KT can be purchased for 8,000 won per month on a 36-month subscription with KT’s internet service and the Olleh internet protocol TV.

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  • HTC Opens Flagship Vive Store in China

    HTC Opens Flagship Vive Store in China

    Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has opened the doors of its first global flagship store for its Vive VR headset. The Shenzhen store will offer consumers the chance to experience VR technology in a relaxed in-store environment. The brand wants consumers to build a better understanding of how VR works, the content available, and how it can enhance their lives – through entertainment and practical applications.

    HTC launched its first Vive headset three years ago and is now a predominant player in the Chinese VR market, claiming 82 per cent market share at one point last year.

    It is now partnering with video game maker Ubisoft Entertainment, Warner Brothers and the McLaren Formula 1 team to participate in the China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference, nicknamed ChinaJoy, where it will have a VR gaming carnival.

    HTC has long been running at a loss as sales of its handsets fall in the highly competitive smartphone market and it sees VR technology as an opportunity to return to profitability.

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  • Samsung opens its incubation

    Samsung opens its incubation

    Samsung Electronics is opening up its internal incubating program, C-Lab, to young entrepreneurs from outside the company, and it plans to help 300 of them over the next five years. It will incubate 200 internal start-up projects during the same period, bringing the total to 500 by 2023. Expanding support to start-ups is part of Samsung’s massive 180-trillion-won ($158-billion) investment plan announced in August.

    “There were lessons learnt during our last six years running C-Lab inside the company, so we suggested sharing our experience and know-how externally as a way to contribute to solving the problem of youth unemployment,” said Lee Jai-il, vice president of the company’s Creativity & Innovation Center, at a press event held Thursday at Samsung’s R&D center inside Seoul National University.

    Started as an internal program to encourage young staff to freely suggest new ideas, C-Lab has produced substantial results.

    Of a total 230 ideas suggested to C-Lab, 78 eventually became a Samsung product or service while 36 people who had those ideas quit their jobs to establish start-ups of their own.

    Some went as far as to set up offices in Silicon Valley or show their products at the Consumer Electronics Show.

    “Another thing I noticed working with 200 C-Lab teams is that there is a type of person more suited than others to do innovative work,” said Lee. “When it comes to realizing their own idea, these people have a tendency to completely immerse themselves in that task and I believe these are the type of people that will lead this country’s future.”

    Opening the one-year program up to outsiders, Samsung will select 20 external teams every year, mainly in their early stages.

    It already has chosen 15 teams this year and they are working inside the R&D center, which the company built in partnership with Seoul National University last November.

    The center looks more a co-working space, not the typical feel for an office at Samsung, which has a reputation for a hierarchical and inflexible corporate culture.

    Several groups were having discussions inside meeting rooms while smaller groups of three to four worked on laptops on random tables in open spaces.

    The building also has a space equipped with 3-D printers and laser cutters to create prototypes.

    There’s a cafeteria that serves three meals a day on the fourth floor, and across from that is a meeting space that offers a wide view of trees in the campus.

    A Samsung staffer said they tried to create “a soft and cozy space fit for young start-ups.”

    All the facilities in the building are offered for free for a year to C-Lab teams. Other advantages include financial support of up to 100 million won and mentoring from various experts from Samsung.

    “What I’m looking forward to, even more than the infrastructure and financial support, is the possibility to find collaboration points with existing Samsung services or businesses and possibly find new service ideas we couldn’t think of before,” said Jinu Kim, CEO of the mobile app Liner, which is one of the 15 external C-Lab teams.

  • Apple is opening its first flagship store in Bangkok soon

    Apple is opening its first flagship store in Bangkok soon

    Various Thai media outlets are reporting that not one but two Apple Bangkok stores are under construction. The US tech giant is notorious about not commenting on its store plans anywhere in the world, even when branding appears on barriers covering its construction sites. However, the first Apple Bangkok store is scheduled to open at IconSiam, the massive retail and entertainment destination being built on the banks of the Chao Phraya River, which will officially begin trading on November 9.

    Thai business magazine Positioning Magmeanwhile, is reporting a second Apple Bangkok store is being developed outside the giant CentralWorld shopping centre in the heart of the city.

    This will be constructed underground, in similar style to the Apple store near New York’s Central Park, with a glass canopy above the courtyard through which customers can enter, before descending down a curved staircase.

    The Icon Siam store will bear more of a resemblance to the Apple store on Singapore’s Orchard Road, featuring a two-story high glass frontage and most likely overlooking the river.

    Both stores were probably designed by Foster + Partners which has a long pipeline of unique Apple store designs around the globe. Its most recent work was Apple Macau.

    Apple now operates about 500 of its own stores in 24 countries.