Gome Electrical Appliances, China's leading home appliance vendor, is tapping into the lucrative mobile phone market by opening next year 500 local stores that will exclusively sell the communication gadget.

"...Samsung sold LCD TVs, DVD players, MP3 music players and other items in Japan via the Internet, but stopped at the end of October. It had ceased sales in retail outlets in August last year...Samsung will sell flat screen computer monitors directly to businesses and will continue to sell components such as memory and LCDs. The company will also keep supplying mobile phone handsets to Softbank..."

"...Hynix is planning to produce 66nm DRAM chips in Taiwan through ProMOS Technologies and it is already producing the same chips at Wuxi, China...designates less than 80nm semiconductor technology as a core technology that needs government protection..."

Taiwanese mobile-handset manufacturer HTC announced Tuesday that it will release its first Android-powered device into the European market in the second half of 2008.

"...Elpida CEO said if a Taiwanese chipmaker such as ProMOS or Nanya were to join them, combined production may exceed Samsung's...Nanya spokesman said the company is very honored by Sakamoto's comments. ProMOS spokesman said an alliance with Elpida would make sense...a Samsung spokesman in Seoul declined to comment...Spokesman at Powerchip said the Taiwanese chipmaker and Elpida will jointly make decisions on the Japanese chipmaker's strategy and expansion in Taiwan..."

Matsushita confirmed that Japan's Fair Trade Commission on Thursday started an inspection of it's unit, MT Picture Display, which makes cathode ray tubes.

"...the IBM-led Common Platform plans to step up its investment in semiconductor packaging technology to pave the way to 32nm devices... Although Amkoris part of the alliance, the group has not yet fully engaged in advanced packaging issues with them..."

"...During our fourth quarter, price pressure continued in the DRAM industry with spot and contract prices declining to new lows...we are confident that we will have more than 50 percent conversion to 80nm and 75nm in December 2007...."

Sony Ericsson unveiled the W380 Walkman phone along with new accessories.