Looks like Intel is getting serious about competing with mobile chip vendors, ranging from applications chip makers such as Marvell to intellectual property companies such as ARM.

Samsung has seen its semiconductor revenues rise at CAGR of 13.5% from 1999-2009, while Intel's sales have increased at a CAGR of just 3.4% in the same period. Extrapolating these growth rates, Samsung would pass Intel in semiconductor sales in 2014, according to IC Insights.

Microsoft may end up paying $400 million on marketing alone to launch Windows Phone 7 for the holidays, an analyst has said.

Nokia's bonds are currently rated A with a negative outlook at Standard & Poor's and A2 with a stable outlook at Moody's Investors Service, the sixth investment-grade level at the ratings companies. It is ranked A- with a stable outlook at Fitch Ratings.

Suntech Power China's largest maker of solar panels, said on Thursday that it has signed a deal to develop solar plants in South Africa with up to 100 megawatts in capacity.

Sounds like a marketing ploy by the designer of the app, but pretty cool nonetheless.

Intuit and Mophie (maker of the JuicePack battery for iPhone) will introduce the Complete Credit Card Solution, which fits over the iPhone 3G and 3GS like the JuicePack and has a credit-card reader that uses Intuit's 18-month-old GoPayment mobile payment software. It will be available as an iPhone accessory in Apple Stores.

Yes, the App World 2.0 app store could be technically better than the competition with know-how from Cellmania, but that doesn't always translate to beating the competition.

The next big play in broadband is delivering carrier services to multiple consumer devices in the home over a variety of wired and wireless networks. So chipmakers need to be able to provide a portfolio of Wi-Fi, powerline and coax solutions for STBs, gateways and other devices.

OCZ Technology is discontinuing the production of some lower-margin DRAM products as part of a shift to focus on higher-margin specialty and high-performance memory products.

The report comes out after a similar study has been commissioned by Samsung Electronics, which itself has faced complaints that unusual clusters of cancers have occurred at its semiconductor factory in Gi-Heung, south of Seoul.