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Samsung ends Intel’s 24-year reign, becomes the largest chipmaker in the world

Samsung announced its quarterly results yesterday , and became the most profitable company in the world. However, the company broke a few other records as well. It ended Intel’s 24-year reign as the largest semiconductor-based chipmaker in the world. Samsung has now leapfrogged Intel by posting a higher revenue as well as operating profits during Q2 2017. The South Korean electronics giant consistently developed new DRAM and flash storage technologies. However, what helped Samsung in become the king of semiconductor chips is that it quickly responded to the changes in the industry. On the other hand, Intel couldn’t make successful chipsets for mobile devices, failed in capitalizing on the growing smartphone, tablet, and wearable devices segment. Samsung’s chip business posted a revenue of KRW 17 trillion ($15 billion) and an operating profit of KRW 8.03 trillion ($7.1 billion) for Q2 2017, which is a huge increase over Q2 2016’s operating profit of KRW 2.64 trillion ($2.4 billion). T...

Samsung Galaxy S8 Active detailed specs revealed ahead of official announcement

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It’s been more than a year since the rugged version of the Galaxy S7 made its way to the US, and Samsung could soon launch its successor. Named Galaxy S8 Active , the durable smartphone has already been certified by the FCC and the Wi-Fi Alliance . Moreover, its images were leaked earlier this week , revealing a flat display and a 4,000 mAh battery. Now, detailed specifications of the smartphone have been revealed. According to the images of presentation slides that appeared online, the Galaxy S8 Active features a 5.8-inch QHD+ Super AMOLED display with 18.5: aspect ratio and Gorilla Glass 5 protection. It runs Android 7.0, and comes equipped with a 4,000 mAh battery that’s compatible with fast wireless charging. It features a Snapdragon 835 processor, 4GB RAM, 64GB of internal storage, and a microSD card slot. It weighs a hefty 208.09 grams and its dimensions are 152.15 x 74.93 x 9.91mm. The phone is supposed to be quite durable, thanks to IP68 certification (for dust and water res...

Themes Thursday: This week’s four best new themes

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It’s Themes Thursday ! We’re bringing you a fresh list of best new themes that have been released over the past seven days, and there are four theme packs in today’s list that you might want to have a look at. All these themes are premium, and cost around $2 each, but the price can vary slightly, depending on the country. The [Binod] CloudsUI is a good-looking theme with really well-done iconography and a brighter UI design. The Flat OS (Live) has a purple background, equally well-done icons, and a live wallpaper for the lockscreen. The Japan theme has interesting looking icons and a picture that looks like Mount Fuji in the background. The letgo_maldives [Premium] theme pack has a holiday-esque background and an AoD wallpaper to match. Which theme did you like the most? I personally like the Flat OS (Live) theme. Let us know your choice in the comments section below. [Binod] CloudsUI | Paid Flat OS (Live) | Paid Japan | Paid letgo_maldives [Premium] | Paid Save Save

SamMobile Daily Recap: July 27, 2017 — Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ and more!

We publish  a lot  of stories on a daily basis. Unfortunately, the majority of news breaks during our European hours of operation, which makes it difficult for our readers in the US (and other regions) to keep up. However, we think we’ve come up with a fantastic solution — a  daily recap . Here’s what went out today. APK S Voice update brings a new icon, and probably other stuff no one cares for Business Here’s how Samsung made an obscene amount of money last quarter Samsung to cancel shares worth billions, announces $868.59 million cash dividend Samsung’s Q2 2017 earnings cement its status as the world’s most profitable tech company Things won’t improve for Samsung’s mobile division next quarter but this is how it will respond Deals Daily Deal: Bag yourself a pair of Level U Pro headphones for 65% off Firmware News Galaxy Tab A 9.7 spotted running Android 7.0 Nougat Phones Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ have outsold the Galaxy S7 in almos...

Samsung reportedly planning to expand its payment service to non-Samsung smartphones

After expanding its payment service to higher mid-range smartphones like the Galaxy A5 (2017) and the Galaxy A7 (2017) earlier this year, and more recently, to the mid-range Galaxy J7 Pro , Samsung is looking to expand the availability of Samsung Pay . It is now being reported that the company is planning to bring its payment service to at least two more mid-range smartphones later this year. Not only that, the South Korean smartphone giant wants to compete with Apple Pay and Android Pay by bringing Samsung Pay to smartphones from rival brands. According to a report from Gadgets360 , Samsung has internally decided to bring Samsung Pay to flagship smartphones from rival brands. This would require OEMs to use Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) specific hardware in their smartphones. Moreover, Samsung is also considering to launch an attachment that would work with the Samsung Pay app on smartphones from other OEMs and brands. Either or both strategies could be finalised, a source sa...

S Voice update brings a new icon, and probably other stuff no one cares for

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Remember S Voice? Alright, I’ll wait a few seconds. Remember it now? Yes? Good. S Voice, the virtual assistant that Samsung never developed to any meaningful potential only to recently decide it once again needs to get into the business of virtual assistants, is getting an update today. It’s a major update as far as the version number is concerned (the version number has jumped from 3.x to 4.x), but we have no clue what it brings to the table in terms of changes and new features. The S Voice icon has been updated to match the new theme that debuted on the Galaxy S8 and S8+, and we think the background transparency of the main S Voice screen has been increased. To be honest, none of us here at SamMobile have used S Voice in the last couple of years, so it’s hard to say whether this is anything other than an icon and version number upgrade. But should you be a regular user of S Voice, the changes should become clear as you start using the latest version, and you can let us know once you...

Daily Deal: Bag yourself a pair of Level U Pro headphones for 65% off

You can currently pick up a pair of Samsung’s Level U Pro Bluetooth headphones for $34.99 (65% off). As well as delivering fantastic sound quality, this particular set of earphones are sweat resistant, which makes them perfect for anyone who frequently exercises. If you like the sound of the Level U Pro headphones and want to take advantage of this promotion, simply hit the  Buy Now  button below. We know we say this a lot, but we’d recommend you hurry as Amazon has only set aside a limited amount of inventory for this deal.

Galaxy S8+ with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage launched in Russia

Samsung has today launched the Galaxy S8+ with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal memory in Russia, following its release in Brazil on Wednesday. The handset, which debuted in South Korea back in March, is priced at RUB 64,990 ($1093) and is only available in one color: Midnight Black. Aside from the increased RAM and storage space, this particular variant of the Galaxy S8+ is identical to the regular 4GB/64GB one, so it sports the same 6.2-inch Infinity Display, Exynos 8895 Octa CPU, 12MP rear-facing camera, 8MP front-facing shooter and 3,500mAh battery. Related:  Samsung launches Galaxy S8+ with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage in Brazil Unless you store a lot of data — documents, images and videos — on your smartphone, there’s no reason to pick up this model over the standard base one; the 6GB of RAM doesn’t lead to any noticeable performance improvements and the 128GB of internal storage is overkill for the average Joe. It’s worth bearing in mind that all variants of the Galaxy S8...

Samsung says the Galaxy Note 8 will be the best handset for media consumption

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Samsung released its earnings for the second quarter of the year today. The company has posted record operating profits and has become the most profitable tech company on the planet this past quarter. The company has also revealed some details about its strategy for the second half of this year . Samsung expects demand for smartphones and tablets to increase in the second half due to strong seasonality, however, it is cognizant of the fact that there’s going to be strong competition from its rivals. To that end, the company will be launching a new smartphone next month, the much-awaited Galaxy Note 8. Samsung has also said that it’s going to work hard to maintain the sales momentum of the Galaxy S8. In a conference call with analysts this morning after releasing the earnings results, a Samsung executive mentioned that the Galaxy Note 8 will be well suited for those who like to consume a lot of multimedia content on their handsets. “The Galaxy Note series, first launched in 2011...

Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ and Galaxy Tab S3 receive certification for classified use in the US

Samsung’s high-end smartphones have been certified by the US government in the past, deeming them safe for classified use. Now, the South Korean smartphone giant has announced that its latest flagship smartphones and tablets have been approved by the National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) under the Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation program. The Galaxy S8 , Galaxy S8+ , and the Galaxy Tab S3 have now appeared in the Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) list. This means these devices satisfy the rigorous safety standards to securely maintain classified information that is required by federal agencies and departments as well as other highly regulated industries and sectors in the US. Samsung also offers IPSec VPN client, offering a single solution for data security. “ We are committed to pursuing and validating our devices against the most stringent certifications available in the market to ensure that we are meeting the needs of o...

Samsung to cancel shares worth billions, announces $868.59 million cash dividend

Samsung has taken several steps over the past couple of years to boost shareholder value. It announced a $10 billion share buyback program in 2015 which was completed in one year. Samsung said that the $10 billion exercise contributed to a 20 percent increase in the stock price over the past year. To further increase shareholder value, the company promised to increase the dividend yield on its shares. The company also launched another share buyback program worth $8 billion in 2016. The funds were used to purchase and cancel shares. Three months ago, Samsung announced that its Board of Directors had approved a plan to cancel all existing treasury shares held by the company. The value of the shares at that time was $43 billion. Companies retain treasury stock to use as a financial resource for merger and acquisition transactions. These shares are also awarded to employees. To limit the impact of this exercise on the financial market, Samsung said that it would cancel the treasury s...

Things won’t improve for Samsung’s mobile division next quarter but this is how it will respond

Samsung doesn’t provide shipment figures for smartphones in its quarterly earnings releases so it’s unknown precisely how many units the company has shipped in the second quarter of this year. We will soon see estimates from industry trackers, though. The company today reported its earnings for Q2 2017 . It has seen strong sales throughout the quarter which is the why the mobile business has brought in 30.01 trillion won ($26.9 billion) in revenue. However, Samsung’s profit margins have taken a hit. The division’s operating profit for the quarter came in at 4.06 trillion won ($3.6 billion) as opposed to 4.32 trillion won ($3.8 billion) in Q2 2016. The Galaxy S8 was Samsung’s flagship product throughout the quarter and the company says that it saw strong sales of both models . The Galaxy S8 might actually have played a big role in generating a big chunk of the profits because Samsung’s affordable options have taken a hit. Samsung mentions in its earnings release that even though it ...

Galaxy Tab A 9.7 spotted running Android 7.0 Nougat

On Thursday, the first-generation Galaxy Tab A 9.7 (SM-T550) was spotted in a document on the Wi-Fi Alliance’s database running Android 7.0, leading us to believe that Samsung is preparing to distribute the long-awaited Nougat update for the slate in the not-too-distant future. For those unaware, Android 7.0 brings a slew of new features to the table. In addition to enhanced notifications, improved application permissions and a ton of fresh emoji, the upgrade transports a multitude of essential bug fixes, stability improvements and speed optimizations. It’s nice to see Samsung preparing an upgrade for the Galaxy Tab A 9.7 seeing as its already approached the end of its two-year support period, so it’s safe to say that this is the last major upgrade the tablet, which debuted running Lollipop , will receive. Initially, we were worried that the Galaxy Tab A 9.7 wouldn’t be able to run the firmware smoothly, but after taking a closer look at its spec sheet , we’re convinced it will. U...

Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ have outsold the Galaxy S7 in almost all regions, says Samsung

When Samsung started taking pre-orders for the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+ a couple of months back, it was immediately evident that the new flagship was outperforming its predecessor as far as pre-orders was concerned . However, once the initial hype died down and customers who really wanted to buy a Galaxy S8 purchased one, we started hearing reports about sales of the Galaxy S8 slowing down. Some reports went so far as to suggest that the Galaxy S8 wasn’t able to keep up with the sales trajectory set by the Galaxy S7 last year. Samsung’s mobile chief DJ Koh refuted such reports recently by saying that this wasn’t the case and that the Galaxy S8 was performing very well. Samsung has now reiterated that claim in its Q2 2017 earnings announcement today. The company has said that the strong sales of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones have contributed significantly to the increase in earnings of its mobile division. It also mentions that the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ have outso...

Here’s how Samsung made an obscene amount of money last quarter

You may have heard by now that Samsung made an obscene amount of money in the quarter ending June 2017 . The company has broken its previous operating profit record and has become the world’s most profitable technology company in Q2 2017. Samsung has earned $12.67 billion in operating profit on revenue of $54.7 billion, more than any other company. The operating profit has surged 72.7 percent compared to Q2 2016. This begs the question, how has Samsung been able to achieve this? Semiconductor The chip business continues to be a cash cow for Samsung, it is the biggest contributor to Samsung’s bottom line. The semiconductor business has posted consolidated revenue of 17.58 trillion won ($15.7 billion) for the quarter and an operating profit of 8.03 trillion won ($7.20 billion) up from 2.6 trillion won ($1.8 billion) in Q2 2016. Consistently high demand for DRAM and NAND chips have pushed up prices which mean wider profit margins for Samsung. The company has taken full advantage of it...

Samsung reportedly working on two new 10nm Exynos chipsets

Samsung’s first 10nm Exynos chipset, the Exynos 8895 , was announced earlier this year , and it was used in the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8+. Now, the company is working on two new Exynos chipsets that use 10nm FinFET fabrication technology. According to the information that has appeared on the Internet, Samsung could release the Exynos 7885 and the Exynos 9610 for its smartphones and tablets. The Exynos 7885 is rumored to be a 10nm FinFET chipset with two ARM Cortex-A73 CPU cores (clocked at 2.1GHz) and four ARM Cortex-A53 CPU cores. It will also use an integrated LTE radio and Mali-G71 GPU, but the information regarding the number of GPU cores hasn’t been revealed. The chipset could debut with the Galaxy A7 (2018). The Exynos 9610 is a higher-end chipset based on Samsung’s 10nm FinFET technology, and it features a 64-bit octa-core CPU. It is rumored to feature four ARM Cortex-A73 cores (clocked at 2.4GHz) and four power-efficient ARM Cortex-A53 cores. Even this chipset is rumore...

Samsung’s Q2 2017 earnings cement its status as the world’s most profitable tech company

Some people might have thought that Samsung had taken its eye off the ball with everything that happened since last year. There was the spectacular failure of the Galaxy Note 7 and a leadership crisis that landed the conglomerate’s heir apparent behind bars in a corruption probe. Despite all of that, the company’s earnings guidance for the second quarter of this year suggested that it may become the world’s most profitable technology company. Samsung has announced the Q2 2017 earnings today and sure enough, it has earned more profit in Q2 2017 than any other tech company on the planet. Samsung reported 61 trillion won ($54.7 billion) as revenue for the quarter ended June 30, 2017, up 19.2 percent from the same time last year. The operating profit has surged considerably compared to Q2 2016. Samsung has posted an operating profit of 14.7 trillion won ($12.67 billion), an impressive 72.7 percent improvement compared to the same period last year. The company has outperformed its own...

Samsung to bring the Rose Pink variant of Galaxy S8 and S8+ to Mexico

After introducing the Rose Pink variant of the Galaxy S8+ in Taiwan , Samsung has announced that it will launch the Galaxy S8 and S8+ in Rose Pink in Mexico. These new variants will be available for pre-booking in the country from August 10. The South Korean smartphone giant has also partnered with Montblanc to offer pink cases to those who pre-book the devices from Telcel.com and AT&T.com. The pre-booking period will last until August 16 after which the phones will go on sale. Montblanc’s pink case for the Galaxy S8 and S8+ can only be purchased by its registered customers or by Samsung Members who buy the Rose Pink variant of the phone from any of the authorized stores. The company has not revealed the pricing of this variants, but it should be the same as other color variants of the smartphone. Samsung had partnered with Montblanc in the past for cases and covers for the Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 edge, Galaxy S6 edge+, and the Galaxy Note 5 .

Samsung posts Q2 2017 financial result

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Samsung posts Q2 2017 financial result July 27, 2017 By Siddhanth Leave a Comment Samsung today published their Q2 2017 results that ended on June 30, 2017. Samsung recorded a revenue of 61 trillion won, a massive growth of 10.06 trillion won YoY with an operating profit of a record 14.07 trillion won, an increase of 5.92 trillion won YoY. Just like the last few quarters, this quarter’s profit surge was a result of the flourishing components business, thanks to the strong memory demand of high-density DRAMs and SSDs for servers. Other businesses also saw a rise in income due to good market demand. The mobile business also saw a growth due to robust sales of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. Samsung’s recent acquisition, Harman also saw sales of 1.9 billion USD and operating profit of 200 million USD. However, profit was eaten up by the costs associated with the acquisition and Samsung expects the same for the next few quarters. For the remainder of 2017, the company expects earnin...

Samsung Electronics Announces Second Quarter 2017 Results

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Samsung Electronics today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2017. Samsung’s revenue for the quarter was KRW 61.00 trillion, an increase of KRW 10.06 trillion YoY, while operating profit for the quarter posted a record KRW 14.07 trillion, an increase of KRW 5.92 trillion YoY.   In the second quarter, the components businesses drove significant earnings growth, both YoY and QoQ, thanks primarily to strong memory demand for high-density DRAMs and SSDs for servers. System LSI contributed to earnings through increased sales of AP and CIS products while the Display Panel Business expanded sales of flexible OLED panels for premium smartphones and high-value LCDs under stable prices. Profits from the Mobile Business, driven by robust sales for the Galaxy S8 and S8+, also increased significantly QoQ.   The Memory Business posted significant earnings growth, both YoY and QoQ, amid tight supply-demand conditions while strong ASPs coupled with increased...