Samsung Electronics’ market cap hits $268 billion for the first time ever

Despite ongoing challenges that have the leadership quite busy, investors continue to reiterate their trust in Samsung’s business. That’s evident by the performance of Samsung’s stock on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index. The share price has been hitting new all-time highs this year and it went up to 2.134 million won yesterday, that’s $1,906, which pushed the market capitalization of Samsung Electronics to $268 billion for the first time every.

Just to get a sense of the rally that has been witnessed in the company’s stock, consider the fact that the share price of Samsung Electronics has made a record high for the last five trading days straight. There was some retracement on March 20 but it touched a new high again yesterday, pushing the market cap to $268 billion.

What’s driving the rally? The strength of Samsung’s semiconductor business, impending release of its Galaxy S8 flagship smartphone and expectations of major changes in the company’s management structure are just some of the reasons why the company’s stock has been performing so well even though its heir apparent languishes behind bars due to Samsung’s alleged role in South Korea’s influence-peddling scandal.

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Samsung Display increases OLED production for tablets

Samsung Display is reportedly going to reduce the supply of LCD panels for tablets as it’s said to be increasing production of OLED panels for tablets. Demand for OLED panels is already soaring for smartphones and it appears that Samsung’s display affiliate is expecting a similar rush in the tablet market. This is one of the reasons why the company is said to be fast replacing its LCD production lines with those for OLED.

This also fuels speculation about Apple adopting OLED displays for the iPad. Samsung Display currently supplies around 25 percent of all LCD panels for the iPad. Apple is believed to be conducting durability tests on OLED panels for its tablet but it’s unclear right now if and when the company is planning to make the switch.

Apple is also expected to finally embrace OLED for smartphones this year. The iPhone 8 might be the company’s first smartphone to pack an OLED panel and Samsung is reportedly going to be the main supplier of OLED panels for the iPhone 8.

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Samsung may offer Galaxy S8 customers an unconditional refund option

Samsung is reportedly preparing a large-scale marketing blitz for its upcoming flagship smartphone. It would make sense for the company to do that given that it has a lot riding on this smartphone. It’s the first proper flagship from the company after the Galaxy Note 7 debacle.

Local media reports out of South Korea suggest that Samsung is even going to offer Galaxy S8 customers unconditional refunds after up to three months of use. What this means is that customers will be able to buy the handset, use it for up to three months and then get their money back if they feel like they no longer want to keep it.

Just how the company will manage this remains unclear. It’s also not confirmed whether this unconditional refund option will only be offered to customers in South Korea or if Samsung will be so generous in other markets as well.

We’ll know for sure come March 29 when Samsung officially unveils the Galaxy S8 at an event in London and New York City.

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Another batch of leaked Galaxy S8 Plus hands-on images surface online

By now, we’re sure you’re pretty familiar with the design of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus, but if you’re not, here’s a couple more images of the latter feast your eyes upon, together with packaging for the Verizon-branded model. As you’d expect, they don’t reveal anything new about the handset. In fact, they actually corroborate everything we’ve heard in the past, including that that it’ll sport on-screen navigation keys and a 6.2-inch panel.

Other notable purported specifications include a Snapdragon 835 octa-core CPU, a 12MP rear-facing camera, an 8MP selfie shooter and a 3,500mAh battery. The 5.8-inch Galaxy S8, on the other hand, will sport a 3,000mAh cell. Both handsets are expected to ship running the latest build of Android 7.0 Nougat skinned with Samsung Experience and will have the firm’s recently-announced Bixby virtual assistant on board.

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Samsung Pay goes live for everyone in India

Samsung started teasing the launch of its mobile payments service in India several weeks ago. Those who signed up for the early access program were allowed to start using the service early this month. The company today announced that Samsung Pay is now live for everyone in India. Now that it has been launched in India, Samsung Pay is currently available in 12 global markets.

Samsung Pay has integrated Paytm and the government’s Unified Payments Interface into the app. The card network and issuer partners for Samsung Pay in India include Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Cards and Standard Chartered Bank. Citibank India credit cards will be supported soon as well.

Customers in India also get a Unified Payment Interface option that has bene launched by the National Payments Corporation of India. The Samsung Pay UPI feature is powered by Axis Bank and enables users to make peer to peer transfer of funds between bank accounts on a mobile platform. Indian consumers can also integrate their Paytm accounts into Samsung Pay which will allow them to pay by scanning QR codes. Paytm works for peer to peer money transfers as well.

The list of supported devices currently includes the Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S7, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy A5 (2016), Galaxy A7 (2016), Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017). It will be available on the Gear S3 shortly as well.

We’ve tried out Samsung Pay in the country to see how it performs, do check out our first impressions of Samsung Pay in India.

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Galaxy J5 (2017) spotted on GFXBench

We’ve known that Samsung is preparing to take the wraps off the Galaxy J5 (2017) for a while, and now we finally have some solid specifications for the handset. If a recent sighting on the GFXBench online directory is anything to go by, it looks like the device is going to sport an Exynos 7870 CPU, 2GB of RAM and a 12MP rear- and front-facing camera.

All in all, it’s isn’t shaping up to be a bad entry-to-mid-range device. There is something a little strange in the listing, though. According to GFXBench, the Nougat-powered Galaxy J5 (2017) will pack a 4.8-inch screen, which seems unlikely seeing as predecessor shipped with a 5.2-inch panel — and we assume that’ll be the case with this latest variant.

 

 

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This is Samsung’s Desktop Experience Station for the Galaxy S8

We’ve seen a glimpse of what Samsung’s Desktop Experience Station for the Galaxy S8 would look like through an illustration found in the Galaxy Tab S3′s firmware, and we are now getting a look at the actual thing through images leaked by Winfuture.de. The DeX station will remind you of Samsung’s fast wireless charger, but it’s a different beast altogether, offering numerous ports to allow for proper PC-like functionality via the Galaxy S8 and S8+.

The station (or dock, depending on what you want to call it) has a USB Type-C port for providing power to the Galaxy S8 (yes, there is no wireless charging built into this thing, but there is fast charging via the Type-C port), two standard USB 2.0 ports, an 100 Mbps Ethernet port, and an HDMI port that can power 4K displays at 30 fps. The station has a cooling fan inside to keep temperatures in check while the Galaxy S8 is acting like an actual PC.

Of course, it remains to be seen just what kind of PC functionality the DeX station will provide, although Samsung should be offering a detailed look at the March 29th unveiling of the handsets. The dock will be priced at Euro 149.99, which seems like an okay price for such an accessory.

What do you make of the DeX station?

 

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