Samsung removes logo on smartphones in Japan

Samsung has removed its corporate logo from its new smartphones sold in Japan, a company spokeswoman confirmed Saturday.

The name Samsung is missing on both the Galaxy S6 and its curved-edge variant, the Galaxy S6 Edge.

These models are presented as Docomo Galaxy and au Galaxy, carrying the names of its associated Japanese telecom service providers.

Samsung provided no reason why it kept the logo off in Japan.

A leading smartphone maker globally, Samsung has however been struggling in the Japanese market, where archrival Apple is dominant, followed by key Japanese makers such as Sony, Sharp and Fujitsu.

The firm rolled out its new smartphone in South Korea last week.

Samsung, labouring under the burden of successive quarters of plunging profits and booming sales of Apple's iPhone 6, is hoping that new phone will reverse the company's fortunes.