A teardown analysis conducted by the market research firm IHS, due to be released tomorrow, has pegged Samsung’s cost of materials and manufacturing to produce the U.S. version of the 32 gigabyte model of the S4 at slightly above $237 per unit. Without a contract subsidy, the entry-level 16GB version of the phone costs $639 when sold by AT&T Wireless.

The cost is somewhat higher than that of Apple’s iPhone 5, the base model of which costs $205 to build for a 16GB version, according to an IHS analysis conducted last fall. It’s also well above the cost of Nokia’s Lumia 900, which costs $209 to build, IHS found at the time.

The S4 cost is not far below the cost of Samsung’s larger Galaxy Note tablet, the cost of which IHS estimated last year to be $270.

Most phone manufacturers source their components from many different suppliers. But Samsung, a large, diversified manufacturer of many different kinds of electronic components, has used its significant capabilities to supply itself with many of the key parts inside most versions of the S4 phone sold around the world.

“Samsung’s strength is this ability to in-source to itself,” IHS analyst Vincent Leung said in an interview. “They just keep adding to the list of components that they can supply to themselves.”

One key component that Samsung did not supply to itself for versions of the phone being sold in the U.S. was the main applications processor. U.S. versions of the phone contain a Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, which contributes $20 to the overall cost.

Versions of the phone sold in Korea and other markets around the world contain a Samsung-made chip called the Exynos 5 Octa that costs $28. Samsung is known to be manufacturing at least four variations of the phone for different market geographies around the world, including at least two being sold in the U.S., one going to AT&T and T-Mobile, and another going to Verizon Wireless and Sprint, said Andrew Rassweiler, another IHS analyst.

“Samsung is demonstrating its ability to suit the tastes of carriers in different regions of the world,” Rassweiler said. “It comes down to what the market is willing to spend on the features offered.”

The fact that Samsung used the Qualcomm-made chip is a testament to the U.S. chipmaker’s prowess. “Even with all the vertical integration it’s doing, it’s not like Samsung has given up on Qualcomm,” Rassweiler said.

One interesting difference between the U.S. and Korean versions resulted from the difference in the choice of processor. U.S. versions of the phone contain an image-processing chip made by Japan’s Fujitsu that added $1.50 to the total cost. Leung says that in the Korean versions, some of the image processing is handed off to Samsung’s Exynos chip.

Samsung also supplied the flash memory used to store data on the device. IHS estimates that 16GB of memory added $28 to the cost of the device.

The Korean giant also supplied itself with a display and touchscreen parts, which added $75 to the cost of components. The combined display package also includes Gorilla Glass, a strong glass material made by U.S.-based Corning.

Samsung is also thought to have supplied itself with several unlabeled components, including the camera module and some wireless baseband chips.

A few non-Samsung suppliers include Broadcom, which provided Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chips; Maxim, which provided a power-management chip; and Triquint Semiconductor, which provided some wireless chips.

South Korea’s biggest company by market capitalization has been betting on its new smartphone, the Galaxy S4, to drive sales in the current quarter, but its plans hit a temporary hiccup after some U.S. wireless carriers said this week they are facing delays in selling the new device.

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The involved malware infections destroyed the master boot record of the hard drives of the machines attacked. The MBR on a hard drive contains crucial information on how file systems on the drive are organized. The malware involved overwrote data in the MBR with the following string of characters: “PRINCPES, PR!NCPES, HASTATI.” It also overwrote random parts of the file system with the same characters.

After that the system was given a forced reboot command, but because the MBR and file system had been corrupted, it was unable to restart, McAfee said in a blog post today.

Meanwhile, Renesys, the research company that closely monitors the pulse of the Internet, watched the attacks take place, and noticed what appeared to be a smaller, secondary attack against the network in North Korea. “It is impossible to know from connectivity measurements alone whether these outages were the direct result of cyber attacks,” the firm wrote in a corporate blog post. “However, given the recent rhetoric between these two nations, it is hard not to see these as ominous developments on the Korean peninsula.”

Servers at three TV stations, a number of commercial banks, including Shinhan Bank and Nonghyup, and two insurance companies were either shut down or severely disrupted from around 2 pm local time, police and government officials said. Some systems were still down in late evening.

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Samsung’s stock trades on the South Korean stock exchange, so it’s not often mentioned in the typical Apple vs. Samsung smartphone smackdown story. But it’s worth mentioning, because the big picture story here really isn’t one in which Samsung beats Apple into submission.

So consider this: According to figures pulled together by Bespoke Investment Group and helpfully flagged by Tiernan Ray over at Barrons, Apple’s share price has risen 5,749 percent over the last decade. Meanwhile, Samsung’s stock has increased just 373 percent. It’s only since March of 2012 that Samsung shares have outperformed Apple’s; they’re up 22 percent, Apple’s are down 27 percent.

Yes, Samsung plays in far, far more markets than Apple. And no, you can’t even buy Samsung shares in the United States (no American depositary receipt). So there are plenty of caveats here (Past performance does not guarantee future returns!). Still, it’s an interesting comparison given the rivarly between the two companies. As Bespoke notes, “Even with its recent pullback, Apple has crushed Samsung over the last ten years.”

True. Not that that will temper the market’s “what have you done for me lately” view of Apple’s performance. Fun comparison to consider, though.

Several major Asia-based smartphone manufacturers are talking up their growth plans. South Korea’s LG Electronics says its smartphone shipments will jump 50% in year-on-year in 2013. China’s expects to post a 50% increase in shipments too. Huawei Technologies says it will ship 60 million smartphones this year, up 88% from 32 million in 2012.

The global market is certainly expanding quickly, but not that fast. Between 2010 and 2011, total global shipments increased 64%, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. In 2012, the pace of shipment growth slowed to 43% year-on-year. In 2013, growth is expected to slow down further to 36%, Strategy Analytics says.

With the overall market growing at a slower pace than what individual manufacturers are forecasting, something’s got to give.

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The South Korean consumer electronics company, which up until 2009 was the world’s third-largest mobile handset maker by shipments behind Nokia Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co., doesn’t have a clear strategy when it comes to smartphones, analysts say. Locally well known as a maker of feature phones, it has struggled over the last two years after failing to get an operating system ready for its smartphones when sales of the devices began taking off. It debated whether to use Google Inc.’s Android or Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system, which some analysts say led to the delay in the launch of its devices.

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The leak occurred Sunday at a Samsung plant outside of Seoul, and while the company and its subcontractor — STI Service — were quick to repair it, neither reported the incident to the police until an employee exposed to the gas died. That belated response has landed Samsung in hot water with local authorities, who say the company’s failure to promptly report the incident is a violation of South Korea’s Toxic Chemicals Control Act. They’re threatening to fine the company up to one million won for the misstep.

Now, one million won is a pittance — about $923 U.S. Clearly, it won’t cause Samsung any pain at all. But the scrutiny the incident has drawn to the company might. Yonhap reports that government officials are investigating the leak and the manner in which it was handled for evidence of a cover-up. Their probe will determine whether or not the leak originated from a pipe that was in need of repair, and if plant workers had been provided with proper safety equipment.

“We will thoroughly investigate to clarify who is responsible for the incident as someone died due to poor administration,” an official told Yonhap. “We are investigating in four different ways to determine the exact amount of leaked gas, the secondary damage, how the incident was handled by the firms afterward, and the relevant law.”

Bad news for Samsung, which has been drawing fire for its labor practices for awhile now. Last November, the company was slapped with a slew of labor abuse accusations in China. Now this. News of the leak and Samsung’s handling of it come as other tech industry heavyweights like Apple are taking very clear — and very public — steps to ensure fair labor practices and safe working conditions at their manufacturing partners.

Reached for comment, a Samsung spokesperson provided the following statement: “A small amount of diluted hydrofluoric acid leaked during maintenance at one of the chemical supply systems at the Hwaseong site. Five contract workers at the scene were sent to hospital for treatment. Four of them have been discharged, while one worker died due to complications. Samsung would like to offer its deepest condolences to the deceased contractor and his family. The situation has been contained and Samsung will be investigating the circumstances of this unfortunate incident.”

Background image copyright kentoh

For the uninitiated, the former president is referring to the fact that there are few to no American communities that are hubs of the kind of world-leading bandwidth sufficient to drive next-generation innovation in our economy. He’s referring to the fact that, though international studies differ, the United States does not enjoy bandwidth that is nearly as fast as our peer countries. He’s referring to the fact that, for the first time since American ingenuity birthed the commercial Internet, we do not have a single national wireline provider with plans to deploy a better, faster and bigger network. For most Americans, five years from now, the best network available to them will be the same network they have today. As a result, the best networks — along with the innovations and economic power they enable — will live in other countries as well.

But we should not give up on American ingenuity; as Tom Friedman detailed in a recent New York Times op-ed, upgrading the broadband network in Chattanooga, Tenn., to world-leading gigabit speeds has transformed the community from a “slowly declining and deflating urban balloon” to the fastest growing city in Tennessee, attracting “a beehive of tech startups that all thrive on big data and super-high-speed Internet.” That’s what Gangnam bandwidth can do in America.

That’s why a recent announcement about big bandwidth from Seattle is also big news. The city just announced a plan to bring gigabit service to a dozen of its neighborhoods. Over 100,000 Seattle residents, as well as health care and educational institutions, will have access to world-leading speeds. Not only is the scale of Seattle’s effort impressive, the path it took — smart policies involving rights of way management and dark fiber — can be replicated by other communities that wish to control their own bandwidth destiny.

As America’s National Broadband Plan concluded in 2010, our country needs a critical mass of communities with world-leading networks for us to continue to have the kind of environment that fosters the cutting edge innovations necessary to develop the next generation of world-leading broadband applications. Seattle is not alone in recognizing that bigger bandwidth is an economic development tool. Just as in decades past, when communities had to learn how to benefit from new modes of power or transportation — with electrical, train or air terminal facilities — so it is now with bandwidth. Officials in Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri worked with Google, offering streamlined processes and regulatory efficiencies. Mayor Emanuel in Chicago and Mayor Bloomberg in New York have both recently launched initiatives to enhance their cities’ digital future. Thanks to efforts by their local leadership and a commitment to next-generation networks, residents in Bristol, Virginia; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Lafayette, Louisiana can already get gigabit speeds. And Gig.U, a consortium of universities and communities looking to accelerate next-generation connectivity in their regions, has, in addition to the Seattle project, helped catalyze ultra-high-speed broadband projects in the past few months: in Orono and Old Town, Maine; Cleveland, Ohio; Gainesville, Florida; East Lansing, Michigan and Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.

Not every community has Seattle’s assets, particularly the strong information, communications, apps development economy and committed local leaders like Mayor McGinn. But Seattle has created a model that every community can follow in improving the environment for the private investment necessary to create a new generation of American broadband leadership. Mr. Friedman proposed a $20 billion fund to bring gigabit connectivity to 200 American cities, arguing that these networks would lead to “a ‘melt-up’ in the United States economy.” While, unfortunately in our view, such a program may not be in the realm of the politically achievable, ironically, it might be the actions of individual cities to catalyze such networks that leads to the kind of growth, debt reduction and surplus that could enable the federal government to once again consider big programs to drive growth and American economic leadership. And this is the kind of policy innovation America deserves.

Blair Levin became Communications & Society Fellow with the Aspen Institute after serving as Executive Director of the National Broadband Planning effort. He is currently Executive Director of Gig.U, a project within the Institute that seeks to accelerate the deployment of next generation networks and services by using university communities as test-beds.

The University Community Next Generation Innovation Project, or Gig.U, is a broad-based group of over 30 leading research universities from across the United States. Drawing on America’s rich history of community-led innovation in research and entrepreneurship, Gig.U seeks to accelerate the deployment of gigabit-speed networks to leading U. S. universities and their surrounding communities. Improvements to these networks drive economic growth and stimulate a new generation of innovations addressing critical needs, such as health care and education. Visit Gig.U online at www.gig-u.org.

Disney confirmed the acquisition, but would not disclose terms. However, Studio Ex has yet to officially launch any games, so this is pretty much a grab for the talent, which includes David Moon, the former director of game services at NHN, one of the largest gaming destinations in Asia.

“The Walt Disney Company has acquired Studio Ex, a games development studio in Korea that focuses on multiplayer, free-to-play online and mobile games,” Disney said, in a statement. “Through a stock purchase agreement, Studio Ex is now a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company reporting into Disney Interactive.”

The game studio will focus on developing free-to-play games for the Asian market based on new brands or existing Disney properties. The games will be developed for both online and mobile.

Prior to the acquisition, Disney announced a partnership with Korean firm Smilegate to develop a game based on Marvel’s iconic heroes, also targeting the Asian market. It also formed a  partnership with Korean game developer Zipi Studio, which, along with other partners, will launch Zipi Racing, a massively multiplayer online racing game featuring characters from “Toy Story” and “Cars.”

Much of Disney’s entrance into gaming has been through acquisitions. Over the past few years, it has purchased Club Penguin, the online multiplayer game aimed at children; Playdom, which is focused on making social games for Facebook; and Tapulous, the mobile game maker.

The move, which will mostly affect Motorola’s R&D and consumer mobile device marketing organizations, will eliminate an estimated 500 jobs in South Korea. Once it’s completed, only Motorola’s Home business and a portion of its iDEN operations will continue in Korea. Google described it as a “difficult but necessary decision.”

News of the cuts follows an August regulatory filing from Google that described a restructuring that would eliminate about 4,000 jobs at Motorola Mobility, which Google acquired for $12.5 billion in August of 2011.

“These changes are designed to return Motorola’s mobile devices unit to profitability, after it lost money in fourteen of the last sixteen quarters,” Google said in the filing. “That said, investors should expect to see significant revenue variability for Motorola for several quarters. While lower expenses are likely to lag the immediate negative impact to revenue, Google sees these actions as a key step for Motorola to achieve sustainable profitability.”

“The Korean operation has been faced with a lot of challenges and has slowed Yahoo’s overall business growth for the past few years,” Yahoo Korea said in a statement Friday.

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Will there ever be a viral music hit going forward that does not spur an endless series of online video copycats?

Nope. Thus, after Carly Rae Jepsen’s hit song “Call Me Maybe” was redone over and over, it’s time for Psy’s “Gangnam Style” to get its moment in the digital sun.

That’s after the original video of the South Korean sensation whooping it up has garnered a record 2.2 million “Likes” on YouTube, and about 200 million views.

So it’s no surprise that others are ponying up — literally — and doing the catchy dance in their own special way, too.

Here are two examples at colleges: A University of Pennsylvania flash mob, and the Ohio University Marching 110 band.

Enjoy:

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission, the country’s competition watchdog, said Thursday that it is investigating a complaint filed by Apple that accuses Samsung of abusing its standards-essential 3G wireless patents. Because Samsung contributed these 3G patents to a global wireless standard, it is obligated to license them under fair and reasonable terms, something Apple claims it has failed to do.

“We are reviewing whether allegations in the complaint lodged by Apple are true,” an FTC official confirmed. “Apple filed a complaint earlier this year that Samsung is breaching fair trade laws.”

The two companies have been sparring over this issue for some time now in a number of countries. And so far things have not gone well for Samsung. It asserted a number of 3G patents against Apple in the pair’s landmark patent trial earlier this summer, but to no avail. And its handling of this particular portion of its IP portfolio is drawing more and more scrutiny. Samsung is currently the subject of a regulatory investigation in the European Union, and sources familiar with the situation say the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is also eyeing it for misbehavior.

And that puts Samsung, which was recently found to have violated six of seven Apple patents on iOS device design and software, in a tough spot. That said, the company continues to deny that it has done anything wrong. “Samsung has at all times met its obligations to the fair licensing of its telecommunications standards-related patents,” said a company spokesperson, who declined to confirm whether it is under investigation in South Korea.

The verdict from the San Jose, Calif., federal jury came early Saturday morning South Korea time, a day after a Seoul court, ruling on the same case, came out with a judgment that gave Samsung its biggest victory since the two companies began their global legal battle 16 months ago.

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Micron was the fourth-ranked producer and Elpida third. Combined, they would leap ahead of South Korea’s Hynix into the No. 2 slot by revenue, and would have accounted for $1.54 billion in sales in the first quarter of 2012. Samsung reported DRAM sales north of $2.5 billion in the quarter.

It’s another step in the long-term consolidation of what has turned out to be the most difficult of all the segments of the chip business. DRAM — the memory chips that go inside PCs and servers — are essentially commodities, and thus subject to violent boom-and-bust cycles as demand spurs a round of building new factories. When all the manufacturers build new ones and upgrade the ones they already have, they finish just in time for demand to slack off.

And that usually hurts, because when demand crashes, and it always does, they’re left with two bad choices: One, let some of the new factory lines sit idle, for accounting purposes; or two, make as many chips as they can and compete with the other companies on price. Almost always, all DRAM companies choose option two, and flood the market with cheap chips.

The result is great news for consumers who can benefit by upgrading the computers they already own with relatively cheap chips; it’s also a boon for PC makers, who can add a lot of memory to the machines they sell without upping the price.

But it’s bad for the companies trying to make a profit on DRAM. It turns out that 2011 was one of those flood years, and in fact it was one of the worst in recent memory. It was so bad for DRAM companies that global sales of DRAM chips shrank by 25 percent, from nearly $40 billion in 2010 to less than $30 billion in 2011. This year, sales are expected to inch upward to about $30.5 billion, leading into another boom cycle next year, when demand is high, supplies are tighter and prices rise. And then it will go bust again.

Micron’s acquisition basically leaves the industry with three large players. The next two, after Samsung, Micron and Hynix, are Nanya and Winbond, both significantly smaller.

The deal also represents the end of a long-term goal for Micron. It has long wanted to own an Asian chip supplier in order to boost its scale and help it better ride out these extreme roller-coaster rides.

Way back in 2002, when Hynix was the problem child of the industry, racked by billions in debt and a crash in demand, it was essentially kept alive by support of the South Korean government. Micron offered it a lifeline in the form of an offer to buy $3 billion worth of Hynix’s memory operations. It was all worked out, until Hynix’s bankers insisted first on a corporate restructuring that caused the deal to fall apart.

It was about this time that the DRAM industry price-fixing scandal began. That summer, a U.S. federal grand jury started investigating pricing conditions within the DRAM industry and, within four years, executives with several companies, including Hynix, started serving prison terms.

Micron was implicated, too: An internal memo — revealed in a court filing, about which I first reported for Forbes in 2003 — showed that executives there were raising prices in cooperation with their competitors. One of its sales managers pleaded guilty to charges of obstruction of justice associated with the investigation.

It also marks a second major development in what has turned out to be an eventful year for Micron. In February, its longtime CEO Steve Appleton was killed when the small plane he was flying crashed in Boise. Mark Durcan was named CEO the next day. I had known Appleton for years, and interviewed him a few times. He would have liked to have seen this day.

Google said in a quarterly regulatory filing that Argentina’s Competition Commission and South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission have each opened investigations into “certain business practices” at the Mountain View, Calif.-based company.

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And here’s the reason why: There are hundreds of game companies competing on Facebook, and Zynga is single-handedly grabbing 15 percent of all the revenue.

A report published by Digi-Capital, an investment bank focused on videogames, says this year will be a strong one for consolidation, based on the number of discussions it is having with investors and management teams.

The bankers said the catalyst for the consolidation is either lack of revenue, or profitability, or both. The report said that Zynga, Wooga, King, Electronic Arts and Peak Games are all doing well, but as you get further down the list, many others are struggling to gain momentum.

Meanwhile, the leaders in the space — and particularly Zynga — are constantly having to come up with new games to keep their user base engaged, which is good news for companies that have strong games or teams and are looking for a buyer.

In the first quarter of 2012, Digi-Capital reports, 30 deals closed across all game sectors for a total value of $1.7 billion. In particular, casual, social, mobile and massively multiplayer online games were in demand.

In 2011, a total of 113 games transactions took place, for a total value of $3.4 billion.

Zynga, which recently spent $180 million to acquire OMGPOP, said it is looking to purchase more companies — and has the deep pockets to do it. Besides the leading social games company, the report noted that other companies looking acquire or invest are from China and South Korea, and they are specifically interested in social, mobile or other free-to-play games in domestic and international markets.

“There’s an excellent growth opportunity for U.S. retailers outside the U.S.,” said Michael DeSimone, CEO of FiftyOne, a logistics company. “E-commerce is much more nascent [outside the U.S.], but our merchants are seeing extraordinary growth by building their brand with a new customer base.”

As it turns out, however, shipping and selling goods internationally is extremely complex.

First, there’s currency translation, then there’s the complexity of dealing with customs. And there are other considerations: For instance, a down pillow or a snakeskin purse may have to be cleared by the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife or require a permit if the animal is on an endangered list.

“The opportunity for a bad customer experience is very high, unless you have a repeatable process in place,” DeSimone said.

In other words, done well and executed efficiently, it can be a moneymaker, but if done poorly, you can hurt the brand.

FiftyOne helps U.S. retailers ship products to 106 countries worldwide, by assisting retailers with currency conversion and global shipping logistics, including customs and returns. It manages a central distribution in Columbus, Ohio, where all the packages exit and enter the U.S.

The New York company works with dozens of online retailers, including Macy’s, J.Crew, Overstock.com, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Pottery Barn, Gilt Groupe and Wet Seal. Since FiftyOne started focusing on international logistics, back in 2008, it has seen e-commerce start to take off internationally, DeSimone said.

Last year, the company’s gross merchandise volume, accounting for the total amount of all international purchases made, was $136 million, almost up twice from the year before, when it recorded $78 million. In 2009, its business totaled $26 million.

The biggest international markets for U.S. retailers today, FiftyOne said, are English-speaking countries such as Canada, Australia and the U.K. But South Korea, Brazil and Mexico are also all growing close to 50 percent year over year.

In addition, DeSimone said, the average order size increased to $265 in 2011, up from $237 the year earlier.

Here’s a graphic detailing some of the challenges in shipping internationally:

The Hankook Ilbo reports that the Korean Fair Trade Commission believes Google interefered with a KFTC raid of its South Korean headquarters by deleting pertinent documents instructing its employees to work from home. The agency had been looking for materials supporting complaints that Google is allegedly limiting access to local search engines on Android smartphones.

If the agency determines that Google did indeed obstruct its investigation, it could slap the company with a fine of up to 200 million won. Which, aside from the negative PR that would accompany it, isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds — about $172,000 at current exchange rates.

Reached for comment, Google said that it is cooperating with the KFTC, but flat-out denied accusations that it deleted documents or instructed employees to telecommute to impede the investigation. The company also said it has not been told that the Commission is considering fines.

(Image courtesy of Flickr/toughkidcst)

LG Electronics, the world’s second-largest TV manufacturer, said Friday it will sell a 55-inch TV that is just 3/16 of an inch thick and weighs only 16.5 pounds. Crosstown rival Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest maker of TVs, is expected to unveil a similarly sized TV at the industry’s big trade fair, called the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas in early January.

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We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

Over the next week or so, we’re going to follow the schedule of the actual event. Up now: Samsung mobile head Won-Pyo Hong.

Samsung is the largest seller of Google Android handsets globally and will soon surpass Nokia as the world’s largest maker of cellphones.

And then there’s Apple, the world’s largest smartphone vendor, which is engaged with the South Korean giant in an increasingly nasty legal battle over intellectual property.

By the way, Samsung is a key vendor partner of Apple’s, too.

Obviously, these are high (and complex) stakes for Hong, who heads global product strategy for Samsung’s mobile business.

He talks about that and more in this onstage interview with Walt Mossberg:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111111/samsungs-won-pyo-hong-on-the-mobile-phone-wars-the-full-asiad-interview-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111109/the-livingsocial-trio-talk-asian-expansion-groupon-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20111109/the-livingsocial-trio-talk-asian-expansion-groupon-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/#comments Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:37:15 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=142168

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

Over the next week or so, we’re going to follow the schedule of the actual event. Up now: LivingSocial CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy, along with the head of the daily deals site’s two recent acquisitions in Asia, Daniel Shin of South Korea’s TicketMonster and Paul Srivorakul of Indonesia’s Ensogo Group.

The panel, interviewed onstage by Ina Fried, talked about a range of topics, from its Asian expansion to thoughts about rival Groupon to the future of the social buying space.

Here’s the video:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111109/the-livingsocial-trio-talk-asian-expansion-groupon-and-more-the-full-asiad-interview-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111106/meet-kid-robot-kibot-the-full-asiad-demo-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20111106/meet-kid-robot-kibot-the-full-asiad-demo-video/#comments Sun, 06 Nov 2011 21:05:20 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=140951

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

Over the next two weeks, we’re going to follow the schedule of the actual event. Up now: Kibot, a robot for kids.

Besides playing educational games, Kibot from Korea Telecom gives parents another pair of eyes, too, with videochat and remote control.

Kibot — available only in South Korea for now — is aimed at children from three to seven years old. It looks like a monkey, whose nose is an RFID reader, stomach is a control panel and ears are the navigational buttons.

Would that my kids were that easy to control.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111106/meet-kid-robot-kibot-the-full-asiad-demo-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111101/iphone-4s-headed-to-15-more-countries/ http://allthingsd.com/20111101/iphone-4s-headed-to-15-more-countries/#comments Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:15:50 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=138977 Apple’s iPhone 4S is currently available in 29 countries. By the end of next week, it will be available in 44.

On Tuesday, the company said that it is bringing the device to Hong Kong and South Korea, as well as Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Malta, Montenegro, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Portugal and Romania. Preorders for the iPhone 4S will begin on Nov. 4 in all of those countries, except for Albania, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malta, Montenegro and Panama.

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