The number of Koreans who use smartphones with the Long Term Evolution network is expected to pass the 40-million subscriber mark in 2013, a Seoul-based consulting firm forecast on Tuesday. ROA Consulting said that the number of subscribers may hit 42 million, marking a new era in the domestic telecommunications industry. According to the company’s report, about seven out of 10 mobile device us...

Over 500 million people are on micro-blogging site Twitter and Americans and Brazilians are the most connected, according to a study by social media monitor Semiocast released Monday. Twitter surpassed the half-billion mark at the end of June, with the United States accounting for both the most users and largest number of “tweets” or short messages of no more than 140 characters posted on the si...

Apple is planning to announce the launch of the iPhone 5 and a new iPad at a special event on Sept. 12 according to technology blog iMore. Citing sources who “have proven accurate in the past,” iMore said Apple’s new iPhone and iPad Mini, a new smaller-sized tablet computer, will be open to the market on Sept. 21, nine days after the announcement. The article also said that a new iPod Touch wil...

HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc. will likely reach an agreement over their patent disputes as neither of the two companies has been a clear winner, Fitch Ratings said Monday. Samsung Electronics and Apple, the world’s two largest smartphone makers, have been waging a series of legal suits against each other, blaming each other for patent infringement in design and...

NHN, the operator of Korea’s largest search engine Naver, has developed a proprietary voice-recognition application that enables users to search for foreign language expressions. Android-based smartphone consumers can access and download the app, named “Link,” which will introduce a list of foreign expressions after they speak into their phone in Korean. When users say, for instance, “hello” or...

Display maker posts record sales in second quarter LG Display, Korea’s display panel giant, is gearing up to boost the production of high-end, premium liquid crystal displays for small- and mid-size mobile products. The company said Thursday that its board of directors reached a decision to invest over 1.2 trillion won ($1 billion) to transform part of its sixth generation manufacturing line to...

The global display industry is expected to pull out of a slump triggered by weak prices and excess supply in the second half of the year, local market analysts said Thursday. The display industry has weathered the worst, with overall conditions likely to improve in the coming months, analysts from investor service firms and market researchers said in a meeting hosted by the Ministry of Knowledge...

KT, Korea’s second-largest mobile carrier, and Yonsei University Health System have launched a joint venture in healthcare IT business named H∞H Healthcare. H∞H, or “Hooh,” refers to the infinite value of human and health, KT said. The two sides invested 1 billion won ($869,000) in the joint venture with a 49 percent stake owned by KT, while Yonsei holds a majority 51 percent in the new entity....

Samsung Electronics announced on Wednesday that vacationers will be able to use the company’s Galaxy S3 mobile phone to access “smart hotel” services during the 2012 London Olympics. The company said that it has teamed up with multinational hotel chain Holiday Inn to provide services for vacationers at the chain’s London-Stratford location. Those with a Galaxy S3 will be able to use the device ...