Insiders say staff at Samsung Electronics have never been so anxious ahead of the annual reshuffle, as a weak smartphone performance and its worst earnings in three years are expected to cost many jobs.

As is customary for Korean businesses, Samsung is expected to announce its annual personnel changes in early December, a ritual that even in good times means weeks of distracting uncertainty for staff facing promotion, transfer or the sack.

The last of those options looks more likely after third-quarter operating profit fell by nearly two thirds.

Squeezed by Chinese rivals like Xiaomi Technology [XTC.UL] at the low end and Apple's iPhones at the top, Samsung's share of the smartphone market has also shrunk year-on-year for the last three quarters, leading to speculation that mobile business head J.K. Shin could be on the way out.

"People are very uneasy; even the senior management are asking around about what might be coming," said one Samsung employee.

Samsung declined to comment on potential changes; it often keeps the information secret even from those directly affected until a day or two before the official announcement.

The Maeil Business Newspaper, a local business daily, recently reported the company could cut 20 percent of executive positions across the board, including 30 percent from its mobile division.

This year's appointments will also offer a glimpse of how heir-apparent Jay Y. Lee plans to lead the tech giant. The younger Lee, 46, has been the de-facto decision maker as his father, Samsung Group patriarch Lee Kun-hee, remains hospitalized following a heart attack in May.

"We talk a lot about which of the senior executives will still be with us," another Samsung employee told Reuters. "What happens to them will determine how we will need to work."

Samsung Electronics, the flagship of what is by far South Korea's biggest conglomerate, or chaebol, employed nearly 290,000 people in 2013, about a third of them in the firm's home country.

While work continues, a third Samsung employee said managers and executives were distracted to the point where rank-and-file staff needed to work overtime and weekends to make sure development for major products stayed on track.

Samsung Group's decision to sell its chemical and defense arms to local conglomerate Hanwha Group has further added to the sense of anxiety.

"Everyone's just looking around to see what happens," said a fourth Samsung employee, adding that major strategic initiatives in his business unit were on hold as managers did not know who would be around to see them through.

"Only after the personnel moves are official will we all be able to get back to work," he said. "I just hope the fallout won't be huge."

REUTERS

Samsung will stop producing so many models of smartphones and focus on a core set of devices in the new year, the company said Tuesday.

Speaking to investors in New York, Samsung's head of investor relations, Robert Yi, said his company plans to cut the number of smartphone models it produces in 2015 by 25 percent to 30 percent, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Though Samsung is still a juggernaut in the mobile business, the company has watched its smartphone business start to falter in key markets, such as China. In China specifically, chief competitor Xiaomi has been able to increase smartphone shipments and get consumers excited about its products by delivering higher-end devices at budget-conscious prices.

Meanwhile, Apple, with its new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, has moved to offer smartphones with larger screens, which had been a key point of distinction for Samsung.

The South Korean company's latest quarterly returns put the situation in stark relief. At the end of October, Samsung said that third-quarter income in its mobile business tumbled 74 percent from the previous year and that its operating profits were the lowest they'd been since the middle of 2011. It also warned that smartphone competition would be fierce toward the end of the year.
Samsung is also dealing with increasingly strained margins as its marketing costs have risen considerably. In the third quarter, the company generated just 7 percent margins on smartphones, down from 15 percent in previous years, the Journal reported.

Prompted by the shifts, Samsung had already said that it plans to "fundamentally reform" its product lineup.

Here's how overwhelming Samsung's array of products has become: In just its flagship Galaxy S line, Samsung offers five models beyond the namesake Galaxy S5: the knockabout Galaxy S5 Active and Galaxy S5 Sport; the more modest Galaxy S5 Mini; the Galaxy K Zoom with a higher-end camera; and the Galaxy S5 LTE-Advanced for higher Internet speeds.

There's also the Note phablet line, the new, metal-clad Galaxy Alpha devices and a long list of other Android and Windows Phones devices.

The idea behind streamlining its offerings is simple: the company will be able to cut its overall costs and find ways to improve efficiency in production. Marketing dollars will also be spread across fewer products. Samsung is also planning to use the same components in multiple products to help cut costs.

Yi didn't say how many smartphones the company will ship next year. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

CNET

The world's biggest TV makers, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and LG Electronics Inc, are turning to quantum dot technology for their next-generation TVs as it could still be years before OLED is affordable for the mass market.

The nascent technology involves incorporating a film of tiny light-emitting crystals into regular liquid crystal displays (LCD). The manufacturing process is relatively straightforward and offers improved picture quality at much cheaper cost than using organic light-emitting diodes (OLED).

The resulting lower prices could help the technology catch on far quicker. One industry analyst estimated a 55-inch quantum dot TV could be priced 30 to 35 percent more than a current LCD TV, while an OLED TV could be 5 times more expensive. LG recently launched a 65-inch ultra-high definition OLED TV for 12 million won ($11,350) in its home market of South Korea.

The only real challenge is securing enough quantum dot material from the small pool of suppliers, including Quantum Materials Corp and Nanoco Group PLC.

Nanoco last month said a South Korean plant being built by partner Dow Chemical Co will start quantum dot production in the first half of 2015. Analysts believe the output is destined for a local client.

On Wednesday, LG, the world's No.2 TV maker after domestic rival Samsung, said it plans to make quantum dot TVs in addition to OLED TVs. Analysts regarded that a tacit acknowledgement that OLED needs more time for prices to come down before becoming the new standard.

"We are pursuing a dual-track strategy with quantum dot and OLED," LG Chief Financial Officer Jung Do-hyun told analysts after the company reported earnings. OLED is the fundamentally superior product, he said.

Samsung Vice President Simon Sung told analysts on Thursday that quantum dot is among many technologies under consideration.

"How a technology will match with market conditions, when a technology will emerge as the main market segment is the most critical consideration," Sung said. "We'll respond aggressively after identifying such a market opportunity."

At present, Japan's Sony Corp is the only major electronics manufacturer selling quantum dot TVs. Last month, China's TCL Multimedia Technology Holdings Ltd unveiled a quantum dot TV at the IFA tech expo in Berlin.

OLED RISK

LG and affiliate LG Display Co Ltd are the biggest champions of OLED TVs, in contrast to Samsung which has not released a model this year. Analysts say the lack of Samsung support could limit OLED growth prospects and keep prices high.

"In theory, OLED should become cheaper than LCD once production yields get better because OLED doesn't need a backlight, but at this point both the scale and production yield remain low," said CIMB analyst Lee Do-hoon.

"LG needs a product in the interim, and they seem to be saying they'll look at market conditions and respond with quantum dot," Lee said.

Samsung could be more aggressive than LG in pushing quantum dot as Korea's No.1 consumer electronics maker appears less committed to a particular technology, analysts said. LG, on the other hand, risks undermining its OLED push.

"If LG focuses on quantum dot, it'd be basically the same as signaling that it will be difficult for OLED to go mainstream in the near term," said CIMB's Lee.

Researcher DisplaySearch forecasts 1.95 million quantum dot TV shipments next year, for just 0.8 percent of the market, growing to 25.5 million by 2020. IHS Technology sees OLED TV shipments at 7.8 million units by 2019 from 600,000 in 2015.

Some analysts question how successful quantum dot TVs will be given the availability of affordable LCD TVs, including ultra-high definition sets that they say offer enough bang for the buck.

"The main lineup for TVs is still LCD TV, so I don't know how much quantum dot matters," said HMC Investment analyst Greg Roh. "I don't think it would signify anything more than bolstering the product lineup."


reuters

(AP) - Apple filled a gaping hole in its product lineup with new iPhones boasting larger screens like Samsung's flagship Galaxy smartphones. Now, Samsung is coming out with a smaller phone that looks and feels more like an iPhone.

The new iPhones measure 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches diagonally, up from 4 inches before. Still, that's smaller than the 5.1 inches on the Galaxy S5 and the 5.7 inches on the Galaxy Note 3 and 4 phones.

But even Samsung is stepping back from its recent practice of releasing ever-bigger phones. The new Galaxy Alpha matches the 4.7 inches on the iPhone 6 and has a metal frame like the new iPhones, reflecting Samsung's attempt to mirror Apple's emphasis on design.

Unfortunately, the Alpha falls short in a few ways, including the resolution of its display. Other shortcomings will become apparent as I go through the various features.

The Alpha will be available in the U.S. starting Friday through AT&T. It will cost $200 with a two-year service contract, or $613 without one. The $613 price, which can be paid in installments, is less than the $650 starting price for the Galaxy S5 and the iPhone 6. You also get double the storage with the Alpha, but it's still a high price to pay for technology that isn't top of the line.

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- THE BUILD:

The Alpha's metal frame represents a departure from previous Samsung Galaxy phones, which primarily consisted of polycarbonate plastics.

However, the Alpha still has a plastic back, albeit one that feels smoother and nicer than what's on the S5. You can swap in a spare battery, but can't add a memory card.

What struck me most was how the Alpha feels much like last year's iPhone 5s. The sides are smooth and straight, and the edges are at right angles, like the box for a deck of cards. The corners, though, are curved.

By contrast, the new iPhones feature curved edges, so they feel thinner, lighter and less boxy. But the Alpha is actually smaller, thinner and lighter than the iPhone 6 - by a tad. Compared with both, the S5 feels giant.

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- THE SCREEN:

Size isn't all that matters. The screens on the iPhone 6 and the S5 are both sharper than the Alpha's. The Alpha's screen is decent for reading text and viewing images, but it's about the same resolution as what Samsung built into the Galaxy S III phone back in 2012.

Like other Samsung phones, the Alpha uses a screen technology called AMOLED, for active-matrix organic light-emitting diodes. This is designed to produce richer colors than iPhones, but sometimes the technology goes overboard. For instance, some people complain that AMOLED technology distorts color, so human skin looks too orange, for instance. There was a hint of that when viewing photos and video, but not enough to bother me.

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- THE CAMERA:

The Alpha's camera is 12 megapixels, less than the 16 megapixels on the S5. Although the Alpha's megapixel count is still higher than the iPhone's 8 megapixels, Apple has squeezed many other technological touches into iPhones to deliver consistently good images.

I took dozens of photos with all three phones and found the megapixel count mattered only in a handful. In good light, street signs and posters on a store window across the street came out slightly better on both Samsung phones.

However, the iPhone 6 was typically better at getting the focus right, particularly for low-light and close-up shots. The iPhone 6 quickly captures text on a bottle of contact lens solution, while it took a few tries with the Samsung phones to get the focusing right.

On some evening shots of the New York skyline, I could make out the rectangular windows of apartment buildings when using the iPhone, thanks to anti-shake stabilization technology. With both Samsung phones, the lights from the windows were bleeding into one another.

In my test shots, the iPhone 6 also had better white balance to offset the yellowish coloring of indoor lighting. That said, the Alpha produced the richest colors in a few of my shots.

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- THE REMAINING HARDWARE:

Like the S5, the Alpha has a heart-rate monitor for fitness apps and a fingerprint sensor to unlock the phone. But the Alpha lacks the S5's waterproof coverings. The new iPhones have only the fingerprint sensor. The Alpha and the iPhone 6 have comparable battery life in my tests.

The Alpha's storage stands out. It offers 32 gigabytes for about the same price as a 16-gigabyte phone from most rivals. With the new iPhones, Apple has doubled the storage in the pricier models, but the base models are still at 16 gigabytes. Most phones cost $100 more for a 32-gigabyte version.

Even with the added storage, the Alpha just seems too expensive for what you get. Given that memory costs have been coming down, more storage ought to be as routine as faster processors in each generation of phones.

The Alpha's design is impressive, but the rest of the phone is only adequate. HTC and Apple, for instance, have both been able to produce stunning designs while squeezing in the latest technologies.

Apple has made design central to its iPhones since its first model in 2007. Samsung seems to embracing the importance of design with the Alpha. Along the same lines, the upcoming Galaxy Note 4 phone will have a similar metal frame as Samsung attempts to ratchet up its rivalry with Apple. With better hardware, that phone will have a better chance than the Alpha at challenging the new iPhones.