Declining phone profits driving Samsung's Internet push

Seoul

YOON Lee, a Samsung Electronics Co executive, is giving a tour of his US home in Oakland. He shows off his living room and foyer, then takes a look outside to check the garden. He considers turning on the sprinkler system before deciding the plants have enough water.

The thing is, he's not actually in California. He's 8,000 miles away with a reporter in a Seoul conference room. Mr Lee is at a huge table fiddling with a Galaxy S5 phone that's streaming live video from the US.

This is Samsung's next big bet as it works to build a future beyond mobile phones, where earnings are tumbling. Mr Lee and his colleagues are trying to create another hit from what's known as the Internet of things, technology that st…