According to recent industry reports, competition for dominance of the smart devices market has shifted to smartwatches. LG Electronics recently announced that it plans to release its first smartwatch powered by Android Wear, Google’s wearables platform, in the second quarter of this year. While the company did not cast a hint about the release date, it will likely be launched in June.

The “G Watch” is an outcome of close collaboration between Google and LG Electronics from the initial stage of development. For the product, the stressed point is on how to elevate the hardware functions to the perfect level, which is optimized for the Android platform. The device is compatible with Android-powered smartphones and users will also be able to access all kinds of information using the “OK Google” command.

A representative, who heads the company’s mobile business, said this collaboration with Google is an opportunity for LG to promote its design and engineering capacity in the wearable market.

The noticeable thing about the G Watch is that Google’s core services have been transferred to a wristwatch. Recent reports have suggested that the watch will be built around “Google Now,” the company’s context-driven personal assistant software. The watch’s powerful voice recognition function is expected to allow the wearer to initiate voice commands to find the remaining flight time, game score, send messages, set alarm or track fitness activity by simply speaking “OK Google.”

S. Korea’s PV Industry to See Growth again

South Korea’s second largest polysilicon producer Hankook Silicon with its annual polysilicon production capacity of 15,000 tons resumed its operations in February. The maker has stopped the whole operations since December 2012 when the international polysilicon prices dropped to $15 per kg.

Meanwhile, Hanwha Chemical finished construction of a 10,000-ton-capacity polysilicon plant in Yeosu late last year and is scheduled to begin commercial production within the first half of this year. Another polysilicon producer Samsung Fine Chemicals is building 10,000-ton-capacity plant in Ulsan and will likely set foot in the market within this year.

The nation’s photovoltaic(PV) industry has been turning around since late last year after being mired in the prolonged slump for over two years. Polysilicon prices climbed for six consecutive weeks after the second week of December to $20.71 per kg as of January 15, according to the PV industry market researcher PV Insight. It marks the first time for the prices to hover above $20 in 16 months since September 2012.

The photovoltaic manufactures which use polysilicon products are also boosting their operating ratios. The nation’s ingot and wafer manufacturer Nexolon is running the entire production lines from late last year while cell manufacturer Hanwha Q.CELLS and module manufacturer Hanwha SolarOne also increased their operating ratios up to 90 percent.

The photovoltaic industry’s return to the path of growth largely came as the demand has picked up speed in the US, China and Japan while expansion of new facilities shrank over the last two years.

The global PV installations hit 35gigawatt(GW) last year, but the number will likely grow to 42 and 50 GW at the maximum level this year.

S. Koran Gov’t to Inject $190mn into Semiconductor, display panel R&D

The South Korean government is set to invest 203 billion won($188million) this year in semiconductor and display research&development(R&D)activities. The plan aims to give a further boost to the nation’s semiconductor industry which outpaced its Japanese counterpart to gain the world’s second biggest semiconductor market share after the US. In addition, the government is to widen the gap between other rivals from neighboring nations like China.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy recently announced its plan through a recent business briefing held at the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association in Pangyo, Gyeonggi-do that it would spend 203 billion won in R&D work for the semiconductor and display industry. The amount is up four percent from a year ago. 120.9 billion won was earmarked for the semiconductor industry, display panel industry 73.3 billion won and short-term R&D efforts 8.9 billion won.

The nation outpaced Japan last year to grab the second largest global semiconductor market share for the first time.

Korea’s semiconductor industry, however, has so far centered only on memory chips and is weak in equipment and materials. Thereupon, Korea needs to build stronger momentum to address this problem, the government believed. Korea commands an overwhelming 52.4 percent share in the global memory chip market, but takes a mere 5.8 percent share in system semiconductor and 12.5 percent in relevant equipment.

Korea’s display panel industry which has remained top dog for 11 consecutive years in the world saw its global market share edge down from 46.4 percent in 2011 to 45.9percent last year.

So, the government as a measure against this problematic situation allocated 68.2billion won to develop new semiconductor/display panel equipment and materials. Additionally, 49.1 billion won and 18.6 billion won will be used to localize system semiconductor and expand workforce/infrastructure of semiconductors and displays panels, each.

Electronics Industry Faces Sluggish Sales of Mobiles, TVs, and PCs

The global sales of PCs fell 11.1 percent year-on-year(yoy) to $194.9billion last year from $219.2 billion of 2012, and the sales are projected to decline another 5.3 percent to $184.5 billion this year, according to market consultancy IHS.

The sales of mobile devices increased 22.0 percent yoy to $310.1billion last year from $254.1billion a year ago, but the sales are expected to rise only 9.5 percent to $339.4billion.

Even the market of mobile devices such as smartphones, which sparked the second boom in the IT sector, has matured earlier than expected and further growth will be limited, according to analysis.

In response to such change, Samsung Electronics tightened management at the company-wide level by lowering unit cost of parts supplied by subsidiaries and subcontractors and cutting operation and marketing expenses. And LG Electronics, which once lost the very timing for itself to do smartphone business in 209 and thus has been struggling for five years, is also stepping up emergency management.

 
 
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