Kevin Turner, Microsoft's COO, told partners during his Worldwide Partner Conference keynote about how Apple's lawyers wanted Microsoft to take down their Laptop Hunter ads.

Q-Cells, the world's biggest manufacturer of solar cells, on July 14 blamed tough market conditions for its decision to scrap its full-year sales outlook and warned it would post a big loss in the second quarter. The update shocked investors, leaving the stock more than 14% lower...

William Ogle, who was most recently chief marketing officer at Samsung Telecommunications America, will head marketing, advertising and brand strategy for Motorola's flagship business.

One should not waste a crisis' opportunity to innovate. "Toward the tail end of the oil shock of the early 1970s the first cell phone emerged, produced by Motorola. The second oil crisis in the 1980s eventually led to IBM's PC," said Anand Chandrasekher, manager of Intel's ultra mobility group.

South Korea's unemployment rate hit a three-month high in June as the prolonged downturn discouraged companies from hiring workers.

The primary cause of China's ballooning foreign currency reserves is not the surplus of the country's exports over its imports, but the result of overseas investors pouring money into property and shares...

Semiconductor equipment maker Novellus Systems has posted disappointing margins and a wider-than-expected loss, but a robust forecast helped limit share losses in late trade.

Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML has reported a narrower second quarter net loss than in the first quarter as sales jumped, and said it expects to reach break-even by the end of 2009.

Taiwan hopes to sign an economic pact with China in 2010, Lai Shin-yuan, minister of the Mainland Affairs Council, said in Washington on Tuesday (July 14), according to a statement from the island's China policy-making agency.

While the current economic environment is imposing severe constraints on the semiconductor equipment industry, the primary driver for increasing profitability for leading-edge chipmakers is still Moore's Law...

The 1.8-inch hard disk market appears to be dying. Already, the market is down to two manufacturers, Toshiba and Samsung, and when the latter announced its new 250GB, US$200 1.8-inch HDD last week, the announcement had a rather stunning omission: IDE and SATA.

While the headlines on Mosaid Technologies are about the patent-infringement suit it launched against IBM, the case won't be resolved for years. Of more pressing concern is whether Mosaid can renew its patent-license agreement with Samsung Electronics.

Governments across Asia have launched massive stimulus packages focused on renewable energy in recent months, and some analysts think the new infusion of cash could reshape a solar industry reeling from the economic downturn.

With more automation processing, the solar industry can cut the amount of human labor needed dramatically.

NEC Electronics will likely outsource more production of semiconductors used in consumer electronics to outside foundries to insure against a sudden plunge in demand following losses last year tied to a rapid drop in orders.

South Korea has announced that it had concluded negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU that it hoped would encourage US lawmakers to ratify a free trade deal with the country.

A day after the Korea Communications Commissions (KCC) announced that Ericsson will build a Korea-based R&D center and create more than 1,000 jobs over the next five years, a company spokesman has said the announcement was merely a government "guesstimate."

At the Semicon West trade show here, fab tool vendors rolled out a plethora of products. Here's some of the hot product introductions at the show.