Among smartphone manufacturers, Apple was picked as most competitive when examining seven different fields, according to a report released by Credit Suisse.

Smartphone maker Palm is up for sale and will begin fielding offers this week.

LG Group plans to invest 20 trillion won by 2020 to cut the group's greenhouse-gas emissions and develop energy-saving products. The investment will help reduce emissions by 50 million metric tons a year by 2020.

In much of the world, ZTE is better known as a maker of telecom networking equipment and data cards than cellphones. But research firm iSuppli says the Shenzhen-based company shipped enough phones during the last quarter to break into the top group of handset makers, displacing Motorola.

Nanda Technologies has raised US$4 million from Capital-E and KfW working alongside existing shareholders. The company said it will use the money to support pre-production evaluations at semiconductor manufacturers.

A company that bought the former Qimonda plant for a bargain price has announced plans to retrofit the 1.36 million-square-foot facility to host data centers.

Nokia will launch a digital music service in China, in a high-risk move to make inroads into the world's largest mobile phone market where sales have been crippled due to Internet piracy.

China-based Huawei is considering negotiating a "mitigation agreement" with the US government - as Alcatel of France did when it bought Lucent in 2006 - in order to show its willingness to co-operate with the US. It is making the lobbying push in preparation for a potential bid for a unit of Motorola.

Beceem Communications is planning to sell up to US$100 million in common shares in an initial public offering. The company said it is seeking a listing on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "BECM."

"Our checks in Asia suggest the bear case of competitive pressure on Cree likely takes longer to develop," he writes. "We note that many LED chip makers in Korea, Taiwan and Japan continue to out-source high-power LEDs from Cree, as their in-house yields on lighting-class LEDs are not sufficiently high." Zaman says that Cree and Nichia "continue to split the market for lighting-class LEDs for the near term."

Taiwan reported lower than expected March inflation earlier today and this solidifies Taiwan's position as a low inflation country in a region that is experiencing higher inflation that is prompting central banks to tighten monetary conditions. Malaysia and India have already hiked rates. Through increases in the required reserves and administrative measures, China's monetary conditions are not as accommodative as they had been.

A federal court threw the future of Internet regulations into doubt Tuesday with a far-reaching decision that went against the Federal Communications Commission and could even hamper the government's plans to expand broadband access in the United States.