Samsung To Invest $7 billion in Chip Plant

Samsung a renowned electronics giant, is looking forward to strenghtening its lead in the NAND memory chip sector with a massive billion dollar investment in China.

Samsung who is also the world’s largest semiconductor company said Tuesday it will invest $7 billion (7.87 trillion won) to speed up its NAND memory production in its Xian plant in China. Samsung opened the world’s largest semiconductor plant in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, last month, seeking to meet surging demand for state-of-the-art 3D NAND flash chips.

Currently, Samsung has approved $2.3 billion of the new investment over the next three years.

A Samsung official quotes “The investment is aimed at meeting rising demand for NAND flash products in the mid-to-long term,” 

Samsung is currently the world’s largest chipmaker in both DRAM (used for computers) and NAND flash (used for mobile devices) memory sectors.

The company will discuss the plan with the Chinese government, as they hope to achieve incredible results within this year and start production in 2019.

Recently, the global chip market is in short supply and Samsung is taking advantage of the memory chip “super cycle,” which helped it reach a record profit in the second quarter of the year.

Last month, Samsung reported an operating profit of 14.07 trillion won in the cited period and its chip business was the key driver at 8.03 trillion won.

The global NAND memory market was worth $37 billion and Samsung notched a 36.1 percent market share over distant runner-up Toshiba’s 17.4 percent.

Last month, Samsung announced it would invest 37 trillion won in expanding manufacturing facilities for chips and display panels by 2021.

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Samsung Pay Now Supports MobiKwik in India

Latest update on Samsung Pay features support for MobiKwik, following its introduction on Samsung Pay Mini earlier this year. Samsung Pay allows customers to add money to a virtual wallet, which can then be used for payments both in-store and online.

Here’s the complete changelog for the Samsung Pay:

MobiKwik (Android 7.0 Nougat )
UPI: Transfer money between your bank accounts
UPI: Send money directly from contacts
Import previously added CC/DC on sign-in
Usability improvements

This update comes less than a month after Samsung Pay added compatibility for debit cards issued by the State Bank of India (SBI), the largest bank and most widely-used bank in the region, and around two months after the payment service arrived on the Galaxy J7 (2016).

Recent reports suggest that Samsung hopes to bring the scaled-down version of its mobile payment platform, Samsung Pay mini, to smartphones from other manufacturers like LG and Sony in the coming months. Although, there is no assurance that this will take effect. It is all in a matter of time as more updates roll out.

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Samsung Leader Sentenced to 5 Years In Prison Over Bribery and Corruption Charges

Lee Jae-yong, the direct heir to the Samsung conglomerate, has been sentenced to five years in prison by a South Korean court over bribery and corruption charges.

Lee was involved in a bribery scandal which also saw the former president of South Korea, Park Geun-hye impeached as she was found guilty.

Reports had it that Lee is the third richest man in South Korea and a direct heir to the global electronics maker Samsung. The family company also has stakes in businesses that range from pharmaceuticals to ship building.

Lee, who was detained in February, has denied all charges and his lawyers are expected to appeal the case to the country's Supreme Court.

The charges levied against Lee mention a donation worth up to 41bn won ( £29m) to a non-profit organisation that was run by Choi Soon-sil, who is a friend of the former president. Lee, in return, was expecting political favours including the merger of two Samsung affiliated businesses that would have reportedly increased his strength within the company in 2015.

The merger went ahead after approval from the National Pension Fund in spite of the fact that it was reportedly opposed by several shareholders at the time.

Lee, however, has continued to insist that the payments to the non-profit happened without his knowledge. The money had reportedly moved from Lee to four establishments under Choi's control. Park allegedly gave Choi access to government documents for which she had no clearance.

Samsung has not denied making donations to Choi's non-profits, it was reported.

Samsung is a family owned and controlled conglomerate called a chaebol that was integral to the growth and development of South Korea's industrial prowess. The chaebol companies are seen as strong and powerful groups that dominate the market, according to a report by the NYT. The top 10 largest chaebol's revenue matches about 80% of South Korea's GDP.

Meanwhile, Samsung's share price has dropped by 1% since the judgement.

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Samsung Pay Now Supports SBI Debit Cards

SBI (Standard Bank Of India) cards are now supported on all Samsung devices that feature Samsung Pay. Samsung and SBI announced this development at an event in Mumbai India, Were SBI claimed to have 130 million customers using their debit cards.

Speaking at the event, a SBI spokesman claims that the company expects 10- 20 times increase in payments through the support of Samsung Pay. The company also claims that Samsung Pay won't be supported with Maestro cards, and that support should arrive by December 2018, after all the cards are replaced.

Asim Warsi, Sr Vice President, Mobile Business, Samsung India said in a statement.

"Both Samsung and SBI are household names in India, and it is a momentous occasion for us to collaborate on Samsung Pay and extend an innovative solution that is transforming people's lives worldwide. Samsung Pay, with its many 'Make for India' innovations, is revolutionising the way people carry out their day-to-day payments and transactions. To help more consumers avail of our innovative payment system, we have also introduced Samsung Pay to our mid-segment smartphones like Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro. We recently introduced Samsung Pay Mini to cater to the unique requirement of the mid-segment customers too,"

SAMSUNG PHONES THAT SUPPORT SAMSUNG PAY

The following Samsung Phones that supports Samsung Pay are; Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8 , Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy S7, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 Edge , Galaxy A5 (2016), Galaxy A7 (2016), Galaxy A5 (2017), Galaxy A7 (2017), Galaxy A9 Pro, and the newly launched Galaxy J7 Pro.

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Samsung To Launch A Stunning Dual Screen Flip Phone

The clamshell flip phone is not dead, in fact Samsung’s latest SM-W2018 is leading the charge on flagship phones with some stunning top-end specs.

The leaked flip phone, expected out later this year, manages to cram in not one but two screens. Each are expected to offer Full HD resolution on 4.2-inch screens.

But the fun doesn’t stop there as this handset also packs in the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 CPU backed by a whopping 6GB of RAM and 64GB storage.

Somehow Sammy has also apparently found room to cram in 12MP rear and 5MP front cameras. So what’s the catch?

If you want one of the Samsung SM-W2018 phones you may have to get one shipped over to the UK as they’re apparently only going to be released in China. That said this is still rumour stuff so the hype around high-end flip phones could be enough to entice Samsung to other shores.

We are hoping this arrives alongside the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 later this year.

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