Apple becomes fourth largest handset maker by volumes, says IDC

Microsoft deserves credit for doing some things that go against the prevailing smartphone norm. Instead of a screen covered with little app icons, users get a set of colorful rectangles that Microsoft calls "live tiles."

Intel has announced the opening of a massive US$1 billion chip testing and assembly facility in Vietnam. The factory has a total area of 46,000 square meters.

Sharp cut its annual profit forecast by 40%, citing the stronger yen and falling prices of panels. Net income will probably total 30 billion yen (US$367 million) in the year to March 2011, down from its previous forecast of 50 billion yen.

Singapore-based chip packager STATS ChipPAC has posted revenues of US$432.2 million in the third quarter of 2010, down by marginal 0.7% sequentially but up 10.9% on year. "We expect net revenues in the fourth quarter of 2010 to decline by single-digit level from prior quarter..."

ZTE, one of China's largest network equipment and phone suppliers, is set to buy US$3 billion worth of semiconductor components from five US technology vendors. It has signed the purchase agreements with Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Freescale Semiconductor, Altera and Broadcom.

TriQuint Semiconductor has announced record quarterly revenues for the quarter ended October 2, 2010. Net profits for the quarter soared to US$110.9 million from NT$22.5 million in the second quarter and NT$10.5 million in third-quarter 2009.

European chipmaker STMicroelectronics has reported higher-than-expected net profits for the third quarter, and said sales would expand in the final three months of the year. STM's results follow recent upbeat earnings reports from Intel and ASML.

The first solar energy project on federal land has broken ground in California's Mojave Desert.

As T-Mobile loses its iPhone exclusivity in Germany to O2 and Vodafone, Apple has begun offering the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 unlocked without a contract to German customers, with the 16GB iPhone 4 model selling for 629 euros.

The purported function of an ambient light sensor is to detect the amount of ambient light intersecting with the display's screen, and then either increase or decrease the display's brightness. If there's too much ambient light, the sensor adjusts the brightness upwards, and in a minimal ambient light situation, the brightness is decreased appropriately.

Japan's largest mobile-phone operatormay beat its full-year smartphone sales target by as much as 30%.

The US$2.5 billion chip factory is producing chips on 12-inch silicon wafers, mainly chipsets to be used in desktop computers, laptops and servers. The factory is already fully operational.

Apple has never quite explained the reason for the repeatedly delayed white iPhone, announcing only that the white version is "more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected."

ARM shares, up 120% since the start of 2010, fell to their lowest in nearly two months after a statement overnight from Texas Instruments that end-demand for chips could be weakening.

But net sales for its third fiscal quarter ended September 26, 2010 grew to US$307.6 million, from US$255.7 million in the prior quarter and US$327.6 million a year ago.

Gemalto said in a statement it filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas for alleged infringement of its patented technologies in the open-source Android system and Dalvik operating environment.

Don't underestimate Intel's ability to retool and come back strong. In two years, earnings could top US$3 per share.