Samsung’s 4Q Operating Profit Likely to Fall Short of 10Tn Won Target

Amid predictions that Samsung Electronics’ fourth-quarter operating profit will likely to fall short of their target of 10Tn won, the company's stock price of Samsung Electronics hit a downward slope. Market watchers also predicted that this down-trend would continue into the first quarter of next year. According to financial information provider FnGuide on December 26, the consensus figures for Samsung Electronics’ fourth-quarter operating and net profit were originally set at 10.2Tn won and 8.6Tn won, respectively. Such estimates are up 0.67 percent and 5.10 percent compared to a quarter ago and up 15.79 percent and 23.12 percent compared to a year ago. However, as the year’s end approaches, the estimates for Samsung Electronics’ fourth quarter operating profit have been revised downward to 9Tn won.

LG Electronics Unveils Smart Home Electronics

On December 25, LG Electronics disclosed HomeChat, a user friendly messenger service that allows users to chat with home electronics items through smartphones. Based on the global mobile messenger Line, the HomeChat service enables a remote control, monitoring, and contents sharing for home electronics. LG plans to show off this, and a variety of smart home electronics items that are mounted with this Home Chat service at CES 20144 in Las Vegas, January 7 to 11. HomeChat. LG plans to apply the HomeChat service to its smart home electronics devices, including refrigerators, washing machines, microwave ovens, and others from next year.

How does it work? If, for example, a user asks their fridge: "When did you last perform a clean?" the fridge might reply: "I completed the cleaning on zigzag mode at 11 am this morning."

Samsung Aims to Double Its Focus on Hires For Software Areas

Samsung aims to become a software-driven company and hired 13,000 software specialists over the past 18 months and plans to double the number of software specialists to 70,000 by 2020. According to Samsung on December 24, the number of software-related employees reached 38,000, including 20,000 in Korea and 18,000 overseas. The number of software employees at Samsung Electronics grew by 52% (13,000) in the last 12 months.

The main driver behind Samsung's move is the falling price of hardware and the fact that product features are becoming more synchronized. Additionally, software is emerging as a key source of competitiveness as it offers distinguished user experience and value.

LG Unveils 105-inch Curved Ultra HD TV

LG Electronics and LG Display revealed a 105-inch Curved Ultra HD TV, the largest in the world, on December 19. LG explained that the resolution of this model is five times higher than that of full HD TV and boasts screen resolution of 11 megapixels. The model, accordingly, realizes a uniform, high-quality image regardless of the viewing angle.

Original source: Korea Economic Daily

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