Samsung Blu-ray Player Delayed
Samsung said Tuesday it would delay the launch of its Blu-ray disc player to late June in order to ensure it could fully test the unit before release. Orignally scheduled for release May 23, the player would now release in the United States on June 25. The company said it still expected to be the first player to launch in the U.S. The news follows word from Toshiba that it would delay its HD DVD players to mid-April. HD DVD players are already on sale in Japan.
The Samsung BD-P1000 will sell for $999 and includes memory card capabilities that would allow users to view digital still pictures. It is also widely expected to be the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market for quite some time. In comparison, Toshiba's HD DVD players start at $499.
Ericsson Sues Samsung Over Patents
Ericsson said on Friday that it had filed a lawsuit against mobile phone manufacturer Samsung, accusing it of patent infringement in a number of countries. Ericsson says agreements with Samsung to license GSM, GPRS and EDGE technologies had expired at the end of 2005 and the companies have been unable to negotiate new deals.
A spokesperson for Ericsson said the company has spent large amounts of money on research and development, a common practice in the technology industry. She added that a lawsuit was in the best interest of the company's shareholders and investors. Representatives from Samsung had no comment.
Samsung Completes Blu-ray Drives
Samsung said on Thursday it had completed development of its Blu-ray disc drives, paving the way for the company to begin manufacture of a line of players compatible with the format. However, Samsung was mum as to prices and a specific date for launch, only saying that drives would appear in 2006.
The company was notably format-agnostic in its announcement, extolling the virtues of both HD DVD and Blu-ray over traditional DVD in statements to the press. Samsung is a member of the Blu-ray Disc Association, however it has hinted that it may produce a dual-technology player compatible with both formats.
Samsung Debuts iPod Nano Competitor
Samsung debuted on Tuesday its largest flash based music player with subscription capabilities. The YP-Z5 features a capacity of up to 4GB, a 1.8-inch color screen with photo support, a 24-hour advertised battery life, and weighs about two ounces. Microsoft has also certified the devices as PlaysForSure compatible.
The YP-Z5 will be available in February for a price of $199 USD for the 2GB model, and $249 USD for the 4GB version. "Consumers are choosing digital music subscription services and Samsung supports this trend with the first 4GB flash player to offer subscription capabilities," Samsung's Mark Farish said.
Samsung in Talks with Sony Over NAND
In a move that would further secure Samsung's hold on the NAND flash memory market, the company said it was in talks with Sony and others to provide chips on a long-term basis. Samsung controls over half the NAND market and recently signed a $500 million contract with Apple to supply memory for its iPod players.
According to the Korea Economic Daily, Sony is looking for 8GB NAND chips and bigger, and the order would account for one-fifth of Samsung's total output for 2006. NAND flash memory is used in MP3 players, cell phones and digital cameras, which has led to a huge increase in demand. Intel and Micron recently forged a $2.4 billion partnership to begin manufacturing flash and combat Samsung.
Samsung Pays $300m for Price Fixing
Samsung accepted terms of a plea agreement Thursday that finds the electronics company guilty of conspiring with other manufacturers to artificially inflate the cost of computer memory, thus unnecessarily increasing the prices consumers paid.
As part of the agreement, Samsung would pay a $300 million fine in exchange for prosecutorial immunity for both the company and most of its employees. Seven people, including president of the semiconductor division Y.H. Park, were excluded from the settlement and could still face prosecution.
Samsung: No Digital Music Store for Us
Samsung's digital media chief Choi Gee-sung said that media reports of Samsung opening an online music store similar to iTunes earlier in the week were incorrect, and there had been a misunderstanding.
"We are not at all interested in a music service," Choi said to reporters outside of an analyst meeting. Instead, he said the company plans to offer technical assistance to pre-existing music stores in order to enhance the experience for users, and at the same time increase its own hardware sales.
Samsung Preparing Online Music Store
Samsung will reportedly open a music store similar to Apple's iTunes in the coming months, according to an Associated Press. Choi Gee-sung, the company's digital media chief had said previously that Samsung's standing in the industry was hurt by the lack of a complementary music store like the iPod-iTunes marriage.
No announcement has been made as to an official launch date, however Samsung would call on its partners worldwide to help promote the service. Samsung said it expects to sell about 3.7 million players this year, but thinks it can do better. Despite potentially becoming a rival to Apple, Samsung's memory division has close ties to the Cupertino company and supplies the flash chips used in the iPod Nano.
Apple Nixes Samsung Investment Plan
Apple has decided against investing some $3.8 billion in Samsung, citing the increasing "anti-Samsung sentiment [that] has recently deepened among some political and civic groups," according to an anonymous Samsung official. Details of the fallout were reported Saturday in the financial paper Korea Economic Daily.
Apple reportedly buys about 40 percent of Samsung's flash memory for its popular Nano and Shuffle iPods. This has caused several Korean competitors to publicly complain in the media of a "favorable arrangement" and accuse the two companies of collusion, with the Korean Fair Trade Commission looking into the allegations.
Samsung Guilty of Memory Price Fixing
Samsung has plead guilty to charges of price fixing computer memory and will pay a $300 million fine to settle the case, the U.S. Department of Justice said late Thursday.
The decision revolves around the company's actions from 1999 to 2002 where it colluded with other memory chipmakers to keep prices artificially high. Memory remained expensive even while the tech industry crumbled, raising eyebrows at the Justice Department and spurring an investigation in 2002.
Apple, Samsung May Face Inquiry
The chairman of the South Korean Fair Trade Commission said on a local radio talk show in Korea on Friday that it might consider investigating Samsung and Apple over collusion charges. The probe would focus on allegations that Samsung gave Apple a favorable deal on flash memory chips in order to push out competitors, the Korean wire service Yonhap News Agency said.
Samsung's Korean rivals had originally accused the electronics manufacturer of collusion with Apple in a story printed in the Korea Times on September 9. To its defense, Samsung vehemently denied those allegations, saying it had offered Apple no such deal.
Sprint, Samsung Ink WiMax Deal
Sprint announced on Friday that it had agreed to work with Samsung's telecommunications division to test out the 802.16e, or the WiMax standard, and develop advanced services. The two companies will test terminals and equipment to make future implementations of the technology possible.
The company said it is currently evaluating "multiple options" for WiMax, and is forging partnerships with companies like Samsung in order to develop the needed infrastructure for any future service. "The 802.16e standard will help support the deployment of true wireless broadband," said Thomas Jasny, VP of Wireless Broadband Networks for Samsung.
Samsung: 32GB Flash Memory Coming
Samsung on Monday unveiled a new high density flash memory chip that paves the way for portable devices with much larger capacities. The 16-gigabit NAND chip is equivalent to 2GB of storage, and can be packaged in quantities of 16 to create a 32-gigabyte flash memory product.
The new chips are expected to be mass produced beginning in the second half of 2006. That means devices like Apple's new iPod Nano could see considerable storage bumps in the coming future. Apple did not say whether it plans to use the new flash memory, but the company has purchased a huge stake of Samsung's chips for the iPod.
Samsung to Offer Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Player
There is still no agreement in the fight to become the de-facto standard for next generation DVDs, but at least one company is preparing itself for the possibility of competing technologies and will produce a DVD player that will be able to play both Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats.
A Samsung executive told the Financial Times Deutschland that while the company is pushing for a single standard, it is ready to produce a player that would be compatible with both formats.
Samsung to Quickly Expand MP3 Line
Samsung thinks more is better. At least, that's the stance it will take through the holiday season and into the New Year with its line of digital music players. A company official said on Thursday that Samsung plans to introduce six new players this year and as many as ten new players in 2006. This follows six other players introduced earlier this year.
Samsung is aiming for sales of 5 million units - a sixth of the iPod's expected annual sales. However, Samsung may want to take a cue from fellow Asian electronics maker Creative. Including it's latest player, the Zen Vision, Creative offers 27 different models, yet the company is only expected to sell around 8 million players this year.
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