Device Arena

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced today that its 55-inch Super OLED TV has been a breakout hit at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show, collecting numerous prestigious awards from influential media outlets including Popular Science, Stuff Magazine and G4 TV, as well as a Best of CES Innovations Award from CEA, the producer of the International CES.

• Popular Science – Best of CES 2012: Products of the Future. “After you’ve stood in front of this OLED beauty, it’s hard to look at normal TVs the same way again.”

• G4 TV- Best of the Best Products. “They’re gorgeous, they’re razor thin, the picture on it is looks amazing, the voice recognition is awesome and the motion recognition is awesome.”

• Stuff Magazine – CES Hot Stuff Award. “Ludicrously slim, amazingly bright and devilishly clever… it also has facial recognition and is one of the first TVs with upgradeable innards”

• “Best of CES Innovations 2012” in the Video Displays category —International CES. “Samsung’s KN55ES9000 is a beautiful masterpiece of accurate color reproduction and maximized performance. It provides a suite of advanced Smart TV features with a high performance dual core chipset.”

In addition, Samsung’s Smart Evolution, a feature of the Super OLED TV, was recognized with a CES Editor’s Choice Award from Popular Mechanics.

Samsung’s 55-inch Super OLED TV is a masterpiece that will be acclaimed by home entertainment and design enthusiasts alike. Super OLED technology delivers the ultimate in picture quality and thinness, since there is no need for a color filter as the OLED pixel unit comprises self-emitting RGB sub-pixels laid directly on the display panel, each emitting its own light. The technology is also able to differentiate varying degrees of blacks and shadows, so that users can enjoy unparalleled detail even in the darkest of scenes for the ultimate TV experience.

“Samsung is honoured that the journalist and trade community has recognized the Super OLED with so many prestigious awards,” said Hyunsuk Kim, executive vice president, Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “This is a validation of our substantial investment in developing this technology, and in leveraging our long and successful history of creating innovative OLED products, including mobile phones, digital cameras and tablets.”

The Samsung Super OLED TV will be on display at the 2012 International CES, booth #12004, in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) from January 10-13, 2012. It will be available commercially worldwide this year.

samsung.com

Sony Corporation (“Sony”) and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (“Samsung”) today announced that the two companies have signed agreements to transition the current business relationship with respect to LCD panels.

Under the agreement, Samsung will acquire all of Sony’s shares of S-LCD Corporation (“S-LCD”), the two companies’ LCD panel manufacturing joint venture, making S-LCD a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung. In consideration for the share transfer, cash consideration of approximately KRW 1.08 trillion* will be paid to Sony by Samsung. Concurrently, the two companies have entered into a new strategic agreement for the supply and purchase of LCD panels with a goal of enhancing the competitiveness of both companies. The agreement also allows Sony and Samsung to continue cooperative engineering efforts focused on LCD panel technology.

For Sony, this transaction will enable it to monetize its shares in S-LCD and aims to secure a flexible and steady supply of LCD panels from Samsung, based on market prices and without the responsibility and costs of operating a manufacturing facility. With whole ownership of S-LCD, Samsung anticipates heightened flexibility, speed and efficiency in both panel production and business operations.

Established in April 2004, S-LCD has continued to deliver advanced and cost-competitive LCD panels to both of its parent companies, contributing to the expansion of the respective parties’ TV businesses, and the large-sized LCD TV market overall. However, LCD panel and TV market conditions have now changed. In order to respond to such challenging conditions and to strengthen their respective market competitiveness, the two companies have agreed to shift to a new LCD panel business alliance.

The share transfer and payment are targeted to close by the end of January 2012, subject to necessary approvals from regulatory authorities.

As a result of this transaction, a non-cash impairment loss of approximately JPY 66 billion is expected to be incurred by Sony in the third quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, due to the reevaluation of its S-LCD shares. This loss includes an impact from the fluctuation of exchange rate. Despite this one-time loss, Sony estimates that the transaction will result in substantial savings on and after January 1, 2012 in respect of costs associated with its procurement of LCD panels. The current estimate of the yearly savings in respect of such costs is approximately JPY 50 billion, compared to LCD panel procurement costs estimated for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012. Neither the one-time loss nor the estimated cost savings were included in Sony’s forecast of consolidated financial results for the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, announced on November 2, 2011. Sony is currently reevaluating this forecast, taking into account this transaction and other factors that might affect its full year FY2011 consolidated financial results forecast.

Facts about S-LCD
Established
:April 26, 2004
Capital
:KRW 3.3 Trillion
(Samsung Electronics: 50% plus 1 share, Sony: 50% minus 1 share)

Representative
:Donggun Park, CEO
Location
:Tangjeong, Chung Cheong Nam-Do, South Korea
Production Items
:7th and 8th generation Amorphous TFT LCD
*Note: The final amount of such payment will be determined based on S-LCD’s financial statements as of the end of December 2011.

sony.net

First Smartphone to Combine Android™ 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and the Power of America’s Fastest, Most Reliable 4G Network

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – Verizon Wireless, Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) and Google™ announced the Galaxy™ Nexus™ is available starting today in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and online at www.verizonwireless.com for $299.99 with a new two-year customer agreement.

Customers can browse the Web, stream music and more at blazing speeds using the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network. Galaxy Nexus customers can enjoy access to the 4G LTE network in 190 markets covering over 200 million people across the United States, and fly through the Web with fast download speeds of 5 to 12 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps within the 4G LTE Mobile Broadband coverage area.

Galaxy Nexus runs Android™ 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, which brings an entirely new look and feel to Android. Galaxy Nexus offers customers a redesigned user experience with improved multi-tasking, notifications, Near Field Communications (NFC) sharing with Android Beam™ and a full Web browsing experience. The lock screen, home screen, phone app and everything in between has been rethought and redesigned to make Android simple, beautiful and useful. Galaxy Nexus also features an ultra-thin 9.47mm design with a 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED™ Contour Display to watch movies, view pictures and play games that come to life in 720p (1280×720) resolution.

Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) features:
• Redesigned user interface with software navigation buttons—a first for Android smartphones—and a dedicated recent apps button to make multitasking easy.

• Face Unlock – use state-of-the-art facial recognition to unlock Galaxy Nexus

• Android Beam™ – quickly share Web pages, apps, contacts and YouTube™ videos with friends by simply tapping two compatible phones together

• Redesigned Camera – introduces panorama mode, 1080p video capture, zero-shutter lag for instant photo capturing, and effects like silly faces and background replacement

• People Application – browse friends, family and coworkers, see their photos in high-resolution and check their latest status updates from Google+ and other social networks

• Cloud Services – keep email, contacts, photos, music, browser bookmarks and other data synced to the cloud and across multiple devices so customers never lose important data

• Google Music – upload up to 20,000 songs to the cloud, discover and buy new music from Android Market™, and stream it instantly on Galaxy Nexus and from the Web, free

• Google+ – Create a Google+ account right from the phone and check status updates, manage circles, quickly share updates and photos, video chat with up to ten friends with mobile hangouts, and chat with groups of friends with Google+ Messenger

• Support for Google Mobile™ Services – Gmail™, Google Maps™ with 3D maps and free turn-by-turn navigation, Google Earth™, Movie Studio, YouTube, syncing with Google Calendar™, a redesigned Google+ app and access to more than 300,000 apps, millions of eBooks, thousands of movies to rent, and millions of songs available to download from Android Market

Additional features:
• Dual-core 1.2 GHz application processor and HTML5 Web browser – optimized dual-core processing with Android 4.0 combined with lightning fast 4G LTE connectivity for fast downloading of graphics, applications processing and Web browsing

• Mobile Hotspot capability – share 4G LTE or 3G connection with up to 10 Wi-Fi-enabled devices

• 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with zero-shutter lag for instant photo capturing, autofocus and LED flash with full 1080p recording

• Front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera for video chat

• Textured soft-touch back cover enhances the ergonomic feel and makes the phone slip-resistant

• Bluetooth® 3.0 technology – support for headset, hands-free, stereo, phonebook access, human interface device (HID) and object push for vCard and vCalendar

• 1 GB RAM and 32 GB on-board memory (actual formatted capacity will be less)

Pricing and data packages:
• Galaxy Nexus is available now in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and online at www.verizonwireless.com for $299.99 with a new two-year customer agreement.

• Customers that purchase a Galaxy Nexus by Samsung will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan beginning at $39.99 monthly access and a smartphone data package starting at $30 monthly access for 2 GB of data.

samsung.com

Ericsson and Samsung have successfully achieved interoperability between the world’s first commercial LTE device from Samsung and the live network from Ericsson in Stockholm, Sweden – an important milestone in making 4G a reality.

LTE will transform the mobile-broadband user experience, providing the ultra-high data speeds anywhere, anytime. LTE will bring unparalleled services such as Internet TV, mobile video blogging, on-line video games and high speed mobile business environment.

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Sprint and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile), the number one mobile phone provider in the United States1, today announced the upcoming arrival of Samsung IntrepidTM smartphone, a dynamic Windows® phone that lets the customer be productive on-the-go using America’s most dependable 3G network (EV-DO Rev. A)2 domestically and through international roaming when traveling worldwide.

Samsung Intrepid features Windows Mobile® 6.5 Professional, and improves on previous Samsung Windows phones with a user experience that offers a customizable Today screen to display the features the user accesses most often and shows important information like new emails, text messages, missed calls and calendar appointments. It also has a richer Internet browsing experience and new personalization options including a diverse selection of designer themes and the ability to create an original look for your phone with the built-in theme creator.

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