A two-week long Chinese media campaign had focused on Apple's repair policies.

Samsung still has its challenges in trying to beat Apple for consumers' loyalty.

The HTC One was successfully torn down, but the excessive use of glue, rather than screws, helped make this device the single most difficult cellphone ever disassembled.

STMicroelectronics has signed a loan agreement with the European Investment Bank to strengthen its finances.

A former CIO and vice president at networking hardware vendor Foundry Networks has been charged with insider trading over the company's acquisition in 2008 by Brocade Communications Systems, the US Department of Justice said.

"Following a report that China Mobile would sell as many as 120 million TD-SCDMA handsets in 2013, Digitimes Research has revealed that smartphone sales in China could reach 329 million units by the end of 2013."

"China's smartphone market is now the largest in the world. DigiTimes Research pegged the country as accounting for 189 million of the more than 700 million smartphones shipped last year."

STMicroelectronics and Ericsson have agreed to split up their unprofitable ST-Ericsson chip venture after failing to find a buyer for the business, cutting about 1,600 jobs as they divide the assets.

Each time in recent years that the Federal Reserve has paused in its efforts to stimulate the economy, it has come to regret the decision as premature.

In a rare interview a day before Samsung Electronics's launch of a new flagship smartphone, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller on Wednesday played down the expected competition from the device. He also discussed how he believes products that run Google's Android software, such as Samsung's phone, are inferior to Apple's iPhone.

Lenovo's chief executive has told a France-based publication he is open to an eventual deal to buy embattled smartphone maker BlackBerry.

Google is cutting loose another 10% of its Motorola Mobility workforce - which means 1,200 employees at the smartphone maker face redundancy. The move comes after 4,000 jobs in the Motorola wing of Google's biz were axed in August 2012.

Samsung has failed to secure a iPhone ban in Japan in its latest patent fight with Apple.

Following an online uproar over a law banning the unlocking of cell phones, the Federal Communications Commission will investigate whether the ban is harmful to economic competitiveness and if the executive branch has any authority to change the law.

Qualcomm has announced a pair of new mobile processors designed for entry-level and mid-range smartphones. Expected in handsets later in 2013, the Snapdragon 200 and 400 balance the high-end 600 and 800 processors introduced in January.

The new HTC One, shown exclusively to the BBC at the company's headquarters in Taiwan's capital Taipei weeks before its official launch, differs starkly from HTC's previous phones - and from many other smartphones currently on the market.

Tela Innovations has filed patent infringement complaints against key mobile handset vendors, including LG, HTC, Nokia and Motorola Mobility.

Samsung said it was 99% sure that the phone wasn't one of theirs, adding: "It looks more like an HTC model."

"Fuelled by robust demand for its popular Galaxy models, Samsung was the star performer, shipping a record 396.5 million mobile phones worldwide and capturing 25% market share to solidify its first-place lead," said Neil Shah, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics.

Lenovo has signalled it is a potential acquirer of Research In Motion, lifting the shares in the troubled Canadian maker of BlackBerry smartphones.

Starting from January 26, Americans will have to get permission to "unlock" their smartphone so it runs on more than one mobile network.

Just three short years after the technology's original deployment, worldwide subscribers to the 4G wireless standard known as Long Term Evolution (LTE) are projected to surpass the 100-million mark this year.

The successor to Samsung Electronics' blockbuster Galaxy S3 could launch in April. That's according to Samsung news Web site SamMobile, which pegs the phone's launch on April 15.

Nearly two years ago, Stephen Elop, Nokia's new chief executive, spoke of flaming ocean platforms and shark-infested waters to describe the problems he inherited as the company teetered on the brink of irrelevance.

Industry experts say brisk sales of its latest smartphones, the Galaxy Note 2 and Galaxy S3, have driven its operating profit to an all-time high.

Huawei Technologies, ZTE, and Samsung Electronics were named in a new patent- infringement complaint filed by InterDigital over technology related to the latest mobile-phone standards.

Samsung has done a very good job selling its brand of Google's Android phones. And apparently Google has paid attention: It is bringing over the guy who headed up Samsung's marketing to do the same job at its Motorola unit.

The agreement will result in settlement of all existing patent litigation between the companies and withdrawal of pending actions in the US, UK and Canada related to a recent arbitration tribunal decision.

Flextronics and Motorola Mobility have signed a definitive agreement, under which Flextronics will acquire Motorola's manufacturing operations in Tianjin, China, and will also assume the management and operation of its Jaguariuna, Brazil, facility.

Qualcomm has announced that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Atheros, introduced a new ultra-low power near field communication (NFC) solution that will enable mobile devices with contactless communications and data exchange, including next-generation mobile payments.

"Today we are announcing the new ST, aligned with the new market environment," said Carlo Bozotti, president and CEO of ST. "Based on that, we have made the decision to exit ST-Ericsson after a transition period."

The two companies are expected to ship an estimated 353 million smartphones and hold a combined 47% share of the total smartphone market in 2012. Smartphone suppliers under pressure include Nokia, RIM and HTC, each of which is expected to register steep double-digit year-over-year declines in smartphone unit sales this year.

Nokia Siemens Networks, the wireless network joint venture of Nokia and Siemens, Thursday confirmed it will be closing a plant in Germany as part of a broader program to cut costs and jobs.

Ericsson has filed suit in Texas, arguing that Samsung refuses to renew a patent licensing deal with Ericsson for standards essential telecommunications technology.

There's some irony in the notion that the next big new thing for Apple isn't a long-rumored smart television or long-awaited touchscreen Macs or even lower-price iPhones or iPads. It's a business deal. Investors polled by Morgan Stanley said that Apple getting the go-ahead to sell iPhones through China Mobile.