New Samsung AI centers may be opened in Switzerland and Germany

Samsung AI centers have been operating across the globe for over a year now. The company views artificial intelligence as a future growth driver and is investing billions of dollars to develop new solutions. It has gradually been opening up new locations across the globe. Samsung is working towards its stated goal of hiring 1,000 artificial intelligence specialists by 2020.

According to a new report out of South Korea, Samsung could open new AI centers in Switzerland and Germany this year. They will join a network that spans key locations across the globe such as Seoul, Moscow, Silicon Valley and Cambridge.

New Samsung AI centers to be opened in pursuit of 2020 goal

Samsung last opened a new AI center just three months ago in Montreal. It’s the second in Canada and the fourth in North America. Others in this region are located in New York, Silicon Valley and Toronto.

The company presented its vision for artificial intelligence at the opening event of this facility. It’s working to develop a highly personalized multi-device AI platform that allows interaction through multiple touchpoints. This will allow users to interact with the AI not just with voice but with vision and touch as well.

A company official told The Korea Herald that “Samsung will open additional AI centers this year to attract more AI experts, and the places under consideration include Switzerland and Germany.” If it opens up shop in these two locations it will be a total of nine AI centers. The official did acknowledge that Samsung is facing difficulty in scouting the best AI talent since competitors like Google and Amazon are also in the market for the best AI researchers.

Each AI center is to have at least 100 experts while some bigger centers could hire more. This will enable Samsung to reach its goal of having 1,000 AI specialists by next year. It hasn’t been an easy task, though, as the official said only 45 percent of that goal has been met so far.

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Customers will only be able to buy the new Galaxy M series online

We exclusively reported late last year that Samsung is working on a new series of affordable smartphones called the Galaxy M. The new series is going to consolidate its offerings in the budget segment of the market.

Subsequent reports have suggested that the Galaxy M series will replace Samsung’s Galaxy C, Galaxy J and Galaxy On series. We have already opined on whether the Galaxy M series could bring about Samsung’s resurgence in the budget segment. Where would you buy one, though?

Samsung will only let you buy the Galaxy M series online

Samsung will be launching the Galaxy M series in India prior to a global rollout. Asim Warsi, its mobile chief in India, has confirmed that the phones will only be sold through its website and Amazon in the country. Samsung’s online sales in India are expected to double after this launch.

“The M series has been built around and incepted around Indian millennial consumers,” Warsi said. The Galaxy M series will be released globally after the handsets are released in India by the end of this month.

Commenting on the pricing, he said that the devices will start at less than 10,000 rupees or $140 and go up to 20,000 rupees or $280. They will have features like fast charging and hefty batteries, he confirmed. Warsi did not offer any specifics about the devices.

The Galaxy M lineup will reportedly include three models at launch – the Galaxy M10, M20 and M30. The M10 is believed to feature a 6.02-inch Infinity-V display, Exynos 7870, 3,400mAh battery 3G RAM and up to 32GB of storage. The M20 and M30 may have chunky 5,000mAh batteries. The Galaxy M30 could even have a triple camera system at the back. The Exynos 7885 and 4GB of RAM would be under the hood.

We have also exclusively revealed that the devices will be released in markets across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It’s unclear if the Galaxy M series will be sold online-only in other parts of the world as well. It would make sense for Samsung to do that. The company would cut on overhead costs and compete more effectively against Chinese rivals on price. That’s the agenda with the Galaxy M series.

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Samsung may end up supplying modems for 5G iPhones

Samsung’s 5G modem will debut in its flagship smartphones this year. The company will be open to selling this chip to other customers as well. It appears that Apple could be one of those customers. It was revealed during the testimony of an Apple executive at the trial between Qualcomm and Apple on Friday that the Cupertino, California-based company has held talks with Samsung on sourcing 5G modem chips for future iPhones.

Qualcomm was the sole supplier of cellular modems for Apple’s devices between 2011 and 2016. Apple split orders between Intel and Qualcomm in 2016 and moved all of its orders to Intel last year for its new iPhones. The move followed the ongoing legal battle between the two companies.

Apple held discussions with Samsung on 5G modems

Apple supply chain executive Tony Blevins testified last week that Apple has considered sourcing 5G modems from Samsung and even MediaTek. The company has long wanted multiple suppliers for cellular chips but inked an exclusive agreement with Qualcomm as it offered substantial rebates on patent license costs if it was granted exclusivity.

He also mentioned how Apple wanted both Qualcomm and Intel in the mix. Ot did not want to rely too much on a single supplier. However, its business relationship with Qualcomm changed “in a very profound and negative manner” after the lawsuit was filed in 2017. This led to Apple only using Intel modems in its new iPhones last year.

Samsung obvious stands to gain from this. It announced its Exynos Modem 5100 for smartphones five months ago. Samsung says that it’s the industry’s first 5G modem that’s fully 3GPP-compliant. It’s a single-chip modem with multi-mode communication support. Samsung said that it would begin supplying the modem to customers by the end of last year.

Blevins acknowledged that being in discussions with Samsung on this is “not an ideal environment” for Apple. However, he rightly pointed out that Samsung happens to be the largest component supplier to Apple. If a deal is reached, its impact may not reflect in the company’s bottom line before the next fiscal year. Apple’s 5G iPhones aren’t expected to arrive until 2020.

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