Samsung is the world's largest memory chip maker possessing around 30% of the computer memory chip (DRAM) market and 40% of the NAND flash chip market. But the firm's profit fell by 41% in the second quarter of the year from a year earlier due to the falling price of memory chips. Alarm bells rang a week ago when six manufacturing lines were hit by a sudden power outage. Operations resumed after 22 hours but the accident damaged Samsung's reputation as one of the most stable and reliable firms in South Korea.

The insolvency administrator for BenQ Mobile Germany is suing parent company BenQ for a further 26 million euros (US$36 million) on top of more than 80 million euros it is already claiming. Loss-making Taiwanese electronics group BenQ has in the past rejected Prager's demands of payments for creditors.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Strategic Marketing Associates (SMA) reports that Taiwanese companies will increase their semiconductor capital spending by $4 billion to $13 billion this year. "Industry wide, we're forecasting a capital spending growth of 5 percent this year," said George Burns, president of SMA, in a report. "Just about all the growth is in Taiwan."

The LCD TV range starts from US$899, with the price of full HD 1080p Bravias now starting at US$3499.

CFO Marv Burkett told a conference calls that some of the fabs it used were are at capacity now and the company would like more wafers. Nvidia has undoubtedly benefited from AMD US$5.4bn acquisition of ATI Technologies, which has left it as the sole major independent supplier for Intel platforms. In its second quarter, which is usually slack, net income leapt 99.1% to US$172.7m on revenue 36% higher at US$935.3m.

Motorola announced contracts worth US$394 million with China Mobile Communications, part of China Mobile, for GSM network expansion.

Verizon Wireless and Bank of America have partnered to allow customers to access their bank accounts through their mobile phones.

Microsoft continued its campaign for the use of spectrum known as 'white spaces' to be allowed by the Federal Communications Commission on an unlicensed basis.

Prices of LCD TVs in Beijing are taking their annual dip but this time two months earlier than usual. Some high-end joint-venture companies are joining in this time with many offering discounts across the board.

BenQ has unveiled its latest SH and VL series LCD TVs in Kuwait.

"...There's talk that STM may bid 12.50 euros per share for Infineon, but I'm not so sure there's anything in it..."

Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and MIT have developed a new material that eliminates the need for a multilayer battery by using carbon nanotubes.

Motorola's Razr 2, a technologically advanced follow-up to the Razr cell phone, will make its US debut next month through Verizon Wireless, Verizon announced Friday.

"...70-65nm DRAMs conversion helps to boost productivity and lower costs by 30%...capital spending is likely to be kept down because only some equipment will require upgrades..."

MySQL AB has made it harder for developers to use the enterprise edition of its database software for free, sparking a debate about whether the company has strayed from its obligation to the open-source community.

After a long and tortured courtship, Blockbuster has finally snapped up movie download service Movielink for a relative pittance.

Sanmina-SCI has transferred production of Ericsson products from Sanmina-SCI in Hungary to Sanmina-SCI's unit in Forserum, Sweden.

China will begin to offer mobile TV broadcast services before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games that utilize the country's homegrown CMMB (China's Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting) standard, an official from China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said Wednesday.

Highly reliable sources have confirmed that AMD plans to unveil K10 in a month. Some OEMs should have Barcelonas even before but the official launch for the generation is 10th of September.

Solar cells made from thin-film technologies could make up about one-third of the fast-growing solar photovoltaic market by 2015, a research firm predicted. NanoMarkets on Monday released a report that forecast a rapid uptake of thin-film photovoltaics with spending set to grow from US$1 billion this year to US$7.2 billion by 2015.

...three Toshiba laptop battery cells using batteries made by Sony in December 2005 have caught on fire during the last 10 months, prompting the recall of the production run. The batteries are different to those involved in the infamous recall debacle of late last year, which became the biggest consumer recall in history. Of the 10,000 batteries produced for the Toshiba notebooks in question, it is estimated that around 5,100 units may be affected by the fault.