Global 4G LTE smartphone shipments reached 6.8 million units in the technology’s first year. According to a study from market research firm Strategy Analytics, global LTE smartphone shipments could surge tenfold to 67 million units in 2012. It is expected to be a breakout year for LTE technology, with Apple, Samsung, HTC and others planning to launch 4G LTE phones in the United States, Japan and South Korea. “The mobile industry is entering a breakout year for 4G LTE technology. Multiple operator...

Samsung on Wednesday confirmed that it has filed another lawsuit against Apple in South Korea, according to a report from Reuters. Since last year, the two companies have been involved in heated legal battles throughout 10 different countries, racking up more than 30 separate complaints that have been filed. The newest lawsuit targets the iPhone 4S and iPad 2, and Samsung claims both devices infringe three of the company’s “utility” patents, which involve methods of displaying data, a device...

With Samsung’s high-end TV sales doing well, the company is now looking to launch cheaper television sets according to Reuters. Demand for lower-end TVs has been on the rise in recent months, with major South Korean retailers teaming up with local manufacturers to provide flat-screen models that are as much as 40% cheaper than Samsung sets. “As long as there’s demand, we’re open to get into that segment,” Samsung’s executive VP of visual display, Kim Hyun-suk said. “W...

LG announced on Wednesday that it has sold more than 1 million Optimus LTE handsets. A version of the device landed in the United States as the Nitro HD on AT&T, although it’s unclear if that phone is figured into the count. “The combination of LTE connectivity with LG’s True HD IPS display has resonated with the public regarding the potential of LTE technology,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Mobile Communications Company. LG said it sold 600,000 Optimus LTE units d...

Samsung has sold more than 5 million units of its popular Galaxy S II smartphone in South Korea. The milestone was hit just five months after the phone’s launch. In October, Samsung announced that it had sold more than 30 million Galaxy S and Galaxy S II devices. Variants of the phone are currently available on AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile in the U.S., although Samsung has not yet revealed sales figures for the device here. Samsung also said its South Korea market share was 53% for 2011, according to S...

LG on Wednesday officially announced its Optimus Pad LTE tablet. The device is equipped with an 8.9-inch True HD IPS display that offers a sharp 1280 x 720-pixel resolution, an 8-megapixel camera, an SD card slot expandable to 32GB, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video chats, HDMI-out and a 6,8000 mAh battery. It’s powered by a dual-core Qualcomm processor clocked at 1.5GHz and runs Android 3.2 (Honeycomb), although there is no word if it will be upgraded to the newer Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwi...

Samsung recently warned employees at its South Korea headquarters that the company will face stiff competition amid a weak economy this year. “The global economy’s low-growth trend will continue and uncertainty surrounding the business environment won’t be easily removed,” Samsung Chairman Lee Kun Hee told his employees according to Bloomerg. The company had a solid 2011, when it sold more than 300 million cell phones for the first time ever. Analysts are also worried about the situation; Park Hyun, a...

Sales of Apple’s iPhone 4S have reportedly been surprisingly slow in South Korea, where wireless customers are reportedly disappointed with the phone’s poor performance and lack of features. The Korea Times on Wednesday said that customers are passing on the iPhone due to problems with the phone’s battery life and the lack of support for 4G LTE. The paper reports that pre-sales of the iPhone 4S have totaled between 150,000 and 300,000 units combined at SK Telecom and Korea Telecom, citing u...

Samsung will not fight for an injunction against the Apple iPhone 4S in South Korea, The Chosun Ilbo, a local newspaper, recently reported. “We concluded that we should engage in legal battles with Apple only in the global market, but not in order to gain more market share in Korea,” a senior Samsung executive reportedly told the paper. Samsung is tangled up in legal battles with Apple around the globe, including in Australia, Japan, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States. Samsung&...

Apple’s iPhone 4S is the company’s best smartphone to date, and it’s also the fastest-selling phone Apple has ever launched. Continuing Apple’s mobile warpath, the iPhone 4S will be available in two huge markets in Asia later this month on November 11th. The smartphone will hit Hong Kong and South Korea in addition to 13 additional countries, Apple said on Tuesday. The iPhone 4S is already available in 29 countries, and by the middle of the month, the fastest-selling device in the worl...

As Apple and Samsung continue to battle incessantly over patents, a new report claims South Korea-based Samsung Electronics is preparing a new offensive that will target Apple’s iPhone 5. Apple has yet to unveil its next-generation iPhone but according to a report from The Korea Times, Samsung is already preparing an attack on the device. “Just after the arrival of the iPhone 5 here, Samsung plans to take Apple to court here for its violation of Samsung’s wireless technology related patents,R...

27,000 people have filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple in South Korea over concerns Apple collected private location data, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. The group is seeking 1 million won per person in damages, or about $930 each and just over $25 million total. In early August, the Korean Communications Commission fined Apple 3 million won ($2,829) following the “Locationgate” scandal that occurred earlier this year. Apple has stood by its claims that the location-tracking was the resul...

Apple has been fined by South Korea’s telecommunications regulator following the “Locationgate” scandal that caused public outrage earlier this year, Dow Jones reports. This marks the second time Apple has had to pay penalties resulting from the iOS location-tracking snafu. A South Korean lawyer sued Apple and was awarded $1 million won, or approximately $945 at the time, by a court this past June. It was discovered in April that the iPhone and some iPad models were secretly tracking user...

Samsung announced on Wednesday that it has now shipped more than 5 million flagship Galaxy S II smartphones in just 85 days. The phone became Samsung’s fastest selling smartphone when it hit the 3 million-unit milestone in just 55 days. Samsung now reportedly maintains a 56% share of the mobile phone market in South Korea. The phone maker has yet to launch the device in the United States, but our recent exclusive leak of AT&T’s Galaxy S II handset suggests that official carrier announcements c...