Samsung Electronics, the world's No. 2 handset maker, said on Monday the 2008 global handset market could fall short of its 9 percent growth forecast and did not exclude the possibility the market could shrink in 2009.

Americans expect to limit credit-card purchases, seek out bargains and stretch spending as recession fears put a damper on their holiday cheer. If the gloomiest predictions come true, that could spell disaster for many more store chains and their employees, and provide insight on how long it may take the economy to recover.

Sony - working only on OLED TVs, not on small OLED displays

The deal, which includes laser diodes as well as LEDs, should help Sharp and Nichia respond to market demand for LED lighting products and Blu-ray Disc recorders.

The symbolism was hard to miss when the award was handed to Chang by Hector Ruiz, a longtime friend and the chairman of Advanced Micro Devices. AMD just became the latest U.S. company to make plans to divest its factories–to a new foundry venture that will compete with TSMC. “I never look at any competition lightly,” Chang said, but predicts problems for the new foundry because suppliers and customers will be far from its main locations.

Leaders of Asia-Pacific nations have closed their annual summit by declaring their belief that the global economic crisis can be overcome by 2010. The 21 leaders meeting in Lima, Peru, said they supported economic stimulus to ward off the threat of recession.

A federal judge in Seattle has ordered Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to testify in a class action lawsuit against Microsoft that alleges the company misled consumers in a marketing campaign for Windows Vista.

Struggling smartphone maker Palm said Friday it is cutting its workforce, a move the company takes as it loses market share to rivals Apple and RIM.

A law.com article (registration required) cites lawyers as saying that the US government bestowed amnesty on Samsung in the LCD probe. In the unique world of criminal antitrust law, the first company to step up and admit a conspiracy receives a pass from prosecution.

...Strong revenue growth in October confirmed the US game industry is weathering the macroeconomic turmoil very well... ..Besides gaming, LEDs are hot. For example, LED lighting is projected to be a US$400 million market in 2008...

...Analysts shadowing Dell have been busy this week cutting estimates and reducing the target price on the company's already-battered shares. Raymond James Associates once pegged earnings for 2010 at US$1.75 a share. That is now down to US$1.23, which is below the US$1.30 the firm thinks Dell will earn in 2009, which is below what the firm thinks Dell will earn for 2008.

The board of directors of the Empire State Development had been scheduled to vote on whether to transfer a US$1.2 billion package of state incentives from Sunnyvale-based AMD to The Foundry Co., a joint venture between AMD and UAE-based Advanced Technology Investment. Instead, that vote has been postponed until a December meeting, according to AMD and state officials. However, Travis Bullard, a spokesman for AMD, said the decision to push off a vote until the board’s December meeting does not delay the plant.

More rumors are afoot that Foxconn is looking to snap up Pegatron, the OEM arm of the Asustek Group, with the deal to go down as early as the end of this quarter or second-quarter 2009, depending on the source.

Amid a downturn in DRAMs, Samsung Electronics remains the top supplier in the arena, according to the new rankings from Gartner. In terms of sales, Samsung was the world's largest DRAM maker in the third quarter of 2008, followed by in order Hynix, Elpida, Qimonda, Micron, Nanya, Powerchip and ProMOS, according to the rankings. Germany's Qimonda AG gained share and took fourth place, surpassing Micron. But Qimonda's fortunes could be short lived.