The worldwide mobile phone market grew 19.8% on year in the first quarter of 2011 fueled by high smartphone growth, especially in emerging markets, and gains made by market challengers, according to IDC.

Infineon's decision to exit the wireless business to focus on chips for cars and energy-efficient machines has paid off, as strong second-quarter results let the German chipmaker raise its full-year outlook.

"Based on a number of inputs, we believe Intel is also vying for Apple's foundry business," said Gus Richard, an analyst with Piper Jaffray & Co., in a new report.

Amkor's rise in revenues wasn't enough to offset an increase in expenses, and would have been higher had the company not taken a hit from the Japan disaster. Amkor operates a 211,000-square foot factory in Japan, one of the company's smallest facilities, according to regulatory filings.

Future versions of Motorola's Atrix smartphone-laptop combo will be rolled out as Android "alternatives" to tablets and other newfangled devices, Motorola's chief executive said this week.

A Chinese manufacturing index declined in April from March, indicating that growth may moderate in the world's second-biggest economy after the government raised interest rates and allowed faster gains in the yuan.

Japanese automobile sales more than halved in April - the biggest monthly drop on record - and are not expected to recover until late 2011, raising concerns the country's leading vehicle manufacturers will post losses for the first half of the year.

Japan's parliament has passed a JPY4 trillion (US$49 billion) emergency budget for reconstruction following the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.

Apple won the first round in a patent fight with Elan Microelectronics over touchpad technology, the ITC said on April 29.

"Nintendo 3DS has not been selling as expected since the second week [of availability], and this is not just in the Japanese market but also in the US and Europe, where no direct impact from the great earthquake has occurred," said Nintendo president Satoru Iwata.

Sony plans to resume production of Blu-ray and other optical discs at a tsunami-hit factory in northern Japan in late May, according to the company.

Panasonic plans to cut 40,000 jobs globally over the next two years, the Kyodo news agency and the Nikkei business daily reported. The job losses represent about 10% of the company's workforce, and most of the cuts will come from the company's overseas divisions.

MagnaChip Semiconductor has signed a wafer foundry agreement with Atmel, a major provider of microcontrollers and touch solutions.