Ahead of CES, LG Electronics has launched its LG ThinQ UP upgradeable home appliances including refrigerators, washers, dryers, oven ranges, and dishwashers. Able to adapt to the unique needs and changing lifestyles of each customer, […]
Tag: South Korea
Tencent powers up Nexontown
Tencent Cloud is collaborating with video game publisher Nexon to power up the Nexontown mobile app in South Korea. Nexontown is a metaverse platform with camping sites, classrooms and conference halls where users can interact […]
LG to take 64% stake in Cybellum
LG Electronics has agreed to acquire Israeli vehicle cybersecurity risk assessment solution provider. The deal will initially involve the South Korean tech giant taking a 64 percent stake valued at U$140 million with plans to […]
NexTech AR expands into SEA
NexTech AR Solutions has exapnded its Asia Pacific channel network from one to eight to support the US$35b e-learning market and US$229b MICE industries. From its first collaboration with South Korea’s Coex, NexTech has added […]
Netskope opens data centre in South Korea
Netskope has established a data centre in South Korea to better service its customers in North Asia. Expanding the Netskope NewEdge network to Seoul lets the security cloud provider improve coverage for its services with […]
SK Hynix boosts NAND memory portfolio with Intel acquisition
South Korea’s SK Hynix will acquire Intel’s NAND memory and storage business for US$9 billion. Subject to government approvals expected end 2021, the deal will include the NAND SSD business, the NAND component and wafer […]
AI robot serves customers at Gangnam restaurant
South Korea’s biggest telco KT has introduced an AI-powered smart robot food server at Mad for Garlic in Seoul.
Penta Security appoints Indonesia distributor
South Korea’s Penta Security Systems has named PT Prospera Aswindra Teknologi as its distributor in Indonesia.
Cloud4C establishes South Korea offfice
Cloud4C has launched in South Korea to provide an array of services including cloud migration to hyperscalers, hybrid cloud, cloud managed services, IT modernisation services, disaster recovery services, and managed security services.
Beam raises US$26m for APAC expansion
Micromobility operator Beam has secured US$26 million in Series A funding to drive its expansion in the Asia-Pacific region.
Intel regains top spot as semiconductor market dips in 2019
Despite a 0.7 percent drop in revenue, Intel climbed to the top of the global semiconductor market in 2019, according to Gartner.
Maxis goes with Huawei for 5G
Malaysia’s second largest mobile network operator Maxis has inked a deal with Huawei to roll out 5G in Malaysia next year.
Avast survey: 1 in 5 smartphone photo is terrible or a duplicate
The average person stores 952 photos on their smartphone, of which 22 percent are of bad quality, blurred, dark, or duplicates, according to an Avast survey.
China tops IDC’s smart cities awards
China has emerged tops with five out of 19 winners in the 2018 IDC Smart City Asia Pacific Awards (SCAPA). Taiwan and Singapore were next with four and three awards respectively across 12 functional categories.
YouTube Music and YouTube Music Premium now available in ANZ and South Korea
Australia, New Zealand and South Korea are the first in the region to enjoy YouTube’s new music streaming service available from yesterday.
Google moves to top of smart speaker market in Q1
Google has ousted Amazon from the perch of the global smart speaker market. According to Canalys, Google shipped 3.2 million units with its Google Home and Google Home mini series , surpassing the 2.5 million units of the Amazon Echo series for the first time in Q1.
YouTube rolls out new music streaming service
Spotify, beware! YouTube has announced a revamped version of YouTube Music that will be competing for music lovers.
Cryptocurrency and Carry
Singapore-headquartered Carry is teaming up with Spoqa of South Korea to bring cryptocurrency payment and blockchain-enhanced loyalty points to brick-and-mortar retailers.
Samsung to make cryptocurrency mining chip
Cryptocurrency mining has been given a boost with the revelation that Samsung is working on chip just for that purpose.
Public cloud service in mature APAC region to hit US$10b in 2017
The public cloud services market in the mature Asia-Pacific (APAC) region — Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea — is forecast to grow 17.7 percent in 2017 to total US$10 billion, up from US$8.5 billion in 2016, according to Gartner.
By 2019, Gartner predicts that total public cloud services spending in these countries will rise to US$13.6 billion.
Public cloud services are shared, meterable, elastic and scalable multi-tenanted IT offerings delivered as a subscription-based service to external customers using internet technologies.
Shoppers bring online competition to brick-and-mortar stores
Saw a product you like in a brick-and-mortar shop? Why not whip out your smartphone to read a review of the product or compare prices with other stores? That’s what more and more shoppers are doing during their visit to physical stores.
According to a GfK survey of mobile phone users in 23 countries, 40 percent of shoppers compare prices online while another 40 percent contact a friend or family member for advice. Thirty-six percent take photos of products that interest them.
Globally, men outweigh women on using their mobile phone inside a store to compare prices on a regular basis, standing at 42 percent and 37 percent respectively. The most active age group is shoppers aged 20-29, with nearly half (49 percent) saying they regularly do this, followed by those aged 15-19 and 30-39, both at 45 percent.
Dropping oil price a US$1 trillion boost for GDP and IT spending in H1 2015
What has proven a massive hit for the oil and gas industry may turn out to be a silver lining for the IT industry and GDP as a whole in the first half of this year.
According to Canalys, business and consumer IT spending will be boosted by the current oil shock, as prices remain below US$50 per barrel. It believes the reduction in prices will provide a short-term economic stimulus equivalent to a large tax cut, boosting corporate profits and consumer disposable incomes, which will filter into IT spending.
“Price falls translate into a transfer of wealth from producers to importers. Oil producers received approximately US$340 billion less in the second half of 2014 compared with the first half of the year, based on average monthly production and prices. The difference will be even more significant if prices remain at US$50 per barrel and production continues at the same level for the next six months. If this scenario happens, producers will receive almost US$1 trillion dollars less compared with the first half of 2014,” said Matthew Ball, Principal Analyst of Canalys.
China open to using smartwatches as payment system
Smartwatches are set to be more than health trackers with countries around the world exploring different potential.
According to a recent GfK survey, 54 percent of respondents are keen to use smartwatches for payment even though mobile payment using a smartphone to pay at the checkout with near field communication (NFC) technology hasn’t proved very popular so far.
Besides mobile payment, the survey covering China, Germany, South Korea, the UK, and the US, revealed taht people in these countries see potential in using smartwatches to “carry” tickets for passenger transport or as security keys to their computers and online accounts.
Smartphones to grab lion’s share of mobile market by 2020
Smartphones will grow from one in three today to two out of every three mobile connections globally by 2020, according to GSMA Intelligence, the research arm of the GSMA.
It forecasts that the number of smartphone connections will grow three-fold over the next six years, reaching six billion by 2020. Basic phones, feature phones and data terminals such as tablets, dongles and routers will account for the remaining connections. The study excludes M2M from the connections totals.
“The smartphone has sparked a wave of global innovation that has brought new services to millions and efficiencies to businesses of every type. In the hands of consumers, these devices are improving living standards and changing lives, especially in developing markets, while contributing to growing economies by stimulating entrepreneurship.,” said Hyunmi Yang, Chief Strategy Officer of GSMA.
Fitness monitoring a major draw for wearables
Activity tracker: technology before sports brands At IFA Berlin last week, vendors introduced a number of wearable devices. Of course, most are not available immediately but it’s a […]
NVIDIA adds LTE to Tegra Note 7
NVIDIA has boosted its Tegra Note 7 with the i500 LTE modem – and its 4G LTE cellular connection. The seven-inch tablet is available with LTE and HSPA+ mobile connectivity and can operate on popular carriers across […]
APAC leads in mobile data traffic
Global mobile Internet service revenue grew an estimated 23.4 percent to US$300 billion last year, according to ABI Research. Wireless broadband subscription grew 28.8 percent and the smartphone share of total subscriptions advanced by 6.6 […]
Half billion LTE connections in Asia in 2017
The uptake of 4G-LTE is expected to grow to pass one billion by 2017, according to a new study by GSMA Intelligence. This translates to one in eight of the more than eight billion total mobile connections forecast by that point, up from 176 million LTE connections at the end of 2013. And around half of these are expected to be in Asia.
Nearly 500 LTE networks are forecast to be in service across 128 countries, roughly double the number of live LTE networks today.
“Since the launch of the first commercial 4G-LTE networks in late 2009 we are seeing deployments accelerate across the globe,” said Hyunmi Yang, Chief Strategy Officer of GSMA. “Our new report highlights a number of factors that are driving LTE growth: the timely allocation of suitable spectrum to mobile operators; the availability of affordable LTE devices; and the implementation of innovative tariffs that encourage adoption of high-speed data services. Mobile operators in both developed and developing markets are seeing LTE services contributing to a significant increase in ARPU.”
China, Japan, South Korea, and Australia to drive smart home appliance growth in APAC
China’s booming luxury market along with more mature markets such as Japan, South Korea, and Australia will drive growth in the APAC region for smart home appliances at a five-year CAGR of 92 percent, according […]
Touch-enabled notebooks top wish list
Touch is in. Beyond touch screen phones, users in Asia-Pacific want touch-enabled notebooks.
According to an IDC Asia-Pacific end user survey, 82 percent of respondents prefer a touch-enabled notebook for their next purchase.
The annual survey that studies end user behaviour and usage on client devices. The usage explosion of smartphones and tablets, where touch screen is a prominent feature, is a key driver of taking these screens to the personal computer. The study also finds that the majority of PC users today, even in emerging markets, own a smartphone, especially for 26-35 year olds at 87 percent.
Entelechy Asia 