LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Valens Semiconductor has announced formal incorporation of the HDBaseT Alliance and the finalization of the HDBaseT 1.0 specification, made available to Alliance member companies for CE implementation.

"Applied's stronger second quarter results were led by revenues and profitability gains in our silicon and FPD businesses," said Mike Splinter, chairman and CEO of Applied Materials. "Global demand for computing and consumer electronics is giving our customers the confidence to make significant capacity additions, fueling what we believe will be a multiyear growth cycle..."

Currently, Apple pays royalties for ARM's chip designs used in its products. If the company acquired ARM, it could conceivably raise licensing costs to rivals or even take ARM designs off the market.

No Tech Day is a time to set aside the luxury gadgets for 24 hours "to raise awareness of how much we all rely on and use gadgets in our everyday life, and think what life is like for people in the developing world who do not have the same access to technology and energy."

TriQuint Semiconductor, which provides chips for mobile gadgets such as Apple's iPhone, has hiked its profit forecast for the quarter, a sign that demand is improving.

"I think in the next four years or five years, it's probably going to be the case that NAND will no longer be the storage medium," said a flash memory analyst with Forward Insights. "Everybody's looking at alternatives."

Tessera Technologies, which licenses miniaturization technology for electronic devices, has said its fourth-quarter revenues were going to fall below its previous guidance due to lower royalties.

Rambus has announced that Samsung Electronics will offer a 1Gb XDR DRAM memory device, which will broaden the availability of XDR technology for gaming, computing and consumer electronics applications.

An encouraging set of results from Philips, the Dutch consumer electronics manufacturer, helped set a positive tone for European markets.

Memory chip makers will offer more sophisticated flash drives for smartphones - technology that will be comparable to the solid-state drives (SSD) found in laptops today.

Toshiba has said it aimed to expand its energy, healthcare and environment-related businesses as it targets a strong recovery in earnings within the next three years.

Even if the STMicroelectronics assignment would be large enough to keep the utilization up far enough, it would not suffice to guarantee the company's competitiveness. But, as Buddha said: Every journey begins with the first step.

Hitachi has reported a quarterly loss amid continued weakness in consumer demand for electronic products. Meanwhile, camera and office equipment maker Canon saw second-quarter net profits fall 85% on year, as firms cut back on printers and copiers.

Exactly a year and five months after Toshiba brought an end to the high-definition disc format war, the Japanese consumer electronics company confirmed its plans to produce its own Blu-ray Disc player.

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.

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.

Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips reported a surprise first quarter loss of US$78.9 million compared to a US$390 million profit a year ago. Europe's biggest electronics firm is a casualty of slowing global demand as the recession continues to take its toll on sales, which fell 17% to US$6.8 billion.

According to IC Insights' update to its 2009 forecast, released Thursday, the "perfect storm" of negative factors that have damaged business in the first half of 2009 will bring about a much more "friendly" environment for the IC industry in the second half of the year.

Deutsche Messe plans to shave a day off the CeBIT trade show next year, reducing it to a five-day event, show officials said Monday. The cut is part of the continuing evolution of CeBIT, which at its peak ran for more than a week. In recent years consumer electronics companies have left the show for the IFA show in Berlin, a once biennial event that went annual and is solely focused on consumer electronics.

Panasonic, the world's largest consumer electronics maker, forecast its largest loss in seven years because of falling sales of flat-screen televisions and a stronger yen. The net loss will probably be 380 billion yen (US$4.24 billion) in the year ending March 31, compared with the 30 billion yen profit projection made on November 27.

The annual Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, will get underway on Wednesday in Las Vegas. And while conference organizers are still expecting a strong turnout, evidence abounds that many companies will be dialing back on their participation at what is normally a high-profile, and high-dollar, event.

Japan's Sanyo Electric plans to cut up to 1,000 jobs to revamp its struggling businesses before being bought by Panasonic, a press report said Tuesday.

Taiwanese semiconductor company ASE Group plans to invest about one billion yuan in a Chongqing factory for consumer electronic products and components in April 2009, reports China Business News. However, ASE has denied the paper.

Research shows that this trend towards power-hungry applications is only set to continue. According to Strategy Analytics, voice call, MP3, FM radio and other handset activities are forecast to remain relatively constant through 2015. However, the use of multimedia functions will increase.

Goldman Sachs Group said Thursday it rejected a new offer from Panasonic for its near-30% stake in Sanyo Electric, as the first major attempt at consolidation in Japan's crowded consumer electronics sector turns increasingly sour.

The US bank called off talks with Panasonic on a sale of its stake in the Japanese electronics maker, unhappy with Panasonic's bid.