Samsung
Samsung may shift production from China
The number of Samsung Electronics employees in China eight years ago climbed to 60,000 but now has dropped to 10,000, according to a Samsung report released on July 6.
The number of employees in South Korea for Samsung has increased by 20% in the past five years due to the growth of semiconductor factories in Korea.
Analysts say that Korean companies are slowly shifting production bases to Vietnam and India because of additional regulations and discrimination from the Chinese government, while another factor is the increasing unit prices.
What Samsung’s Report Says:
- According to Samsung Electronics’ 2022 Sustainability Report, in Q4 2021, a no. of 17,820 people performed at the firm’s subsidiaries in China. Which saw a decrease of 70. 6% from the high of 63,316 in 2013.
- The crew in China dropped below 60,000 in 2014, under 50,000 in 2015, and 40,000 in 2016 and 2017 when the THAAD incident broke out.
What is the THAAD issue? The same month in 2016, the U.S. and South Korea announced the alliance decision to deploy a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile battery in South Korea to defend against the increasing North Korean missile threat.
Following this, the Workforce stoop even further when due to the commerce dispute between the United States and China, i.e. less than 30,000 in 2018 and 2019, and below 20,000 in 2020 and 2021.
During this period, Samsung Electronics pared its factories in China. They were ;
The communications factory in Shenzhen in May 2018 and its smartphone factory in Tianjin in December of the same year suffered the closing.
Factory in Huizhou in 2019 was the last to go, the smartphone production headquarters in China.
Following this, in July 2020, the company also closed its computer manufacturing installations in Suzhou.
The Future:
Currently, these factories and production facilities have been moved to Vietnam and India, with China having only three facilities at this point.
They are a home appliance factory, a semiconductor back-end processing plant in Suzhou, and a memory semiconductor factory in China. Xi’an.
Samsung has been hit by high tariffs following the US-China trade dispute, policies focused on domestic demand, and rising labour costs. Tariffs are taxes levied on goods or services imported from another country.
Tariffs are trade obstacles that inflate prices and reduce available quantities of goods and services for the U.S., businesses, and consumers.
The strict blockade policy for the pandemic has hindered Samsung’s stable business in China.
The South Korean tech giant is expected to discontinue acquisitions of the in-home appliance and semiconductor manufacturing leftover facilities in the Dragon’s Den.
Although, this could be seen as a profiteering opportunity for still developing and potential holder countries like the land of tigers, culture & spirituality, India.
Sources & References :
Samsung Electronics Canada has announced that Galaxy AI is now expanding its language support, adding a new language, Canadian French, to allow Canadians to use voice features and translate language more easily on their Samsung devices.
With this new support, Samsung is unlocking new ways to communicate with Canadians. Regarding this, Samsung Canada’s Head of Mobile Business stated, “With continued interest in prioritizing accessibility for Canadians, the introduction of Canadian French to Galaxy AI’s range of languages will break down language barriers for Canadian Galaxy users.”
With the addition of this new facility in Canadian French, users can take advantage of the following Galaxy AI innovations announced earlier this year:
- Live Translate: This feature automatically translates voice calls, face-to-face conversations, and text messages into the preferred languages, so Canadians have the power to choose Canadian French.
- Interpreter: This can provide real-time two-way voice translation; it instantly translates live conversations through a user-friendly split-screen view, permitting us standing opposite each other to read a text translation of what the other person is saying.
- Chat Assistant: This can help perfect conversational tones by initiating context-aware suggestions to authroize communications to sound as they were intended, whether it’s a polite message to a coworker or a short, appealing phrase for a social media caption.
- Note Assist: This has the power to create AI-generated summaries, pre-formatted templates, and cover pages, elevating your day-to-day productivity.
- Transcript Assist: This feature uses AI and speech-to-text technology to transcribe, summarize, and even translate voice recordings.
- Browsing Assist: This lets you stay up to speed on what’s happening in the world while saving time by generating summaries of news articles or web pages.
The Settings application will allow users to download Canadian French as a language pack. In conjunction with the recently debuted Galaxy S24, Galaxy AI is now available on more devices, which include the Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy S23 FE, Galaxy Z Fold 5, Galaxy Z Flip 5, and Galaxy Tab S9 series. And now 2022 Galaxy flagship devices are in line.
Samsung is launching its 2024 smart TVs in the UK. It’s a golden chance to get free devices as a treat for the buyers, since those who will pre-order these smart TVs as fast as possible.
Samsung made its latest OLED, Neo QLED, and Frame TVs available for pre-order in the UK. Interested customers should hurry up since the pre-order deadline is May 14. The Korean giant is not only introducing the new smart TV but also offering a golden chance to win high-end Galaxy devices such as the Galaxy S24+ or Galaxy S24.
The pre-order bonuses are worth up to £999. In some scenarios, the giant offers free Galaxy S24 smartphones as pre-order bonuses for its 2024 TV lineup. Apart from this, the other early adopter bonuses include free soundbars. Let’s take a closer look at Samsung’s pre-order offers for the UK market:
You can get a Galaxy S24+ that is worth £999 for free when you pre-order any one of these Samsung TVs:
- Samsung QN900D, QN800D, QN95D, or QN90D TV
You can get a Galaxy S24 that is worth £799 for free when you pre-order a device mentioned below:
- Samsung S95D, QN95D, QN93D, QN90D, QN88D, or QN85D TV
You can get a free soundbar worth £599 when you pre-order a Neo QLED 4K or The Frame (2024).
Samsung is also introducing the Music Frame wireless speaker, which is also available for pre-order, and customers who buy two Music Frames will claim a SEE Tickets voucher worth £100. While trading in your old TV for a new one, the giant offers discounts of up to £500.
In a meeting at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, Dr. Hon Pak, SVP, and head of Samsung’s Digital Health Team discussed AI, wearables, and their ability to revolutionize healthcare.
The discussion in the meeting emerged around two key themes: first, how advancements such as generative AI could be harnessed to improve healthcare, and second, Samsung’s ability to contribute to the future of healthcare was a key focus, possibly due to their ongoing innovations.
Professor Myung Jin Chung, Director of the Samsung AI Research Center at Samsung Medical Center, highlights the necessity of “lifelog” data assembled by wearable devices for a better understanding of the patient’s medical history. According to him, the future of AI is to extract this information straight from the user’s daily life and offer a better understanding of their health status.
A cardiologist, Dr. Blum, states that it will be better to continue health monitoring through smartwatches, which is key for early disease detection. He also highlights scenarios such as high blood pressure and atrial fibrillation where previous intervention is essential. He believes that smartwatches can offer valuable data for doctors to understand the root causes of the disease whereas AI helps to analyze this data and translate it into actionable insights for patients.
A diabetes specialist, Dr. Klonoff, punctuates the growing use of glucose monitoring, not only for diabetics but also for those pursuing a healthier lifestyle. He also considers it an essential as well as powerful tool when combined with other health data such as sleep, blood pressure, and activity. It is expected that this data, analyzed by wearables and AI, could offer a better understanding of overall metabolic health.
Recent reports reveal that the South Korean giant is also working on the implementation of wearable technologies capable of reading the glucose levels of its users. Apart from this, the giant is also deciding to develop non-invasive solutions for blood glucose monitoring, which would lead the company to get ahead of its long-time rival Apple in this area.