SK Telecom posted a net profit of 364 billion won (US$306.5 million) in the three months ended June 30, largely thanks to increased sales of its wireless data services. Its net profit was 311.6 billion won in the same period a year earlier.

Chipmaking equipment company is adding local jobs for first time in three years as sales rebound.

Ericsson, the world's largest maker of telecom network equipment, said Friday that an industry-wide shortage of key components had contributed to an 8 percent decline in sales in the second quarter, echoing concerns raised earlier this week by Nokia.

Xilinx has announced first quarter fiscal 2011 sales of US$594.7 million, up 12% sequentially and 58% on year. Net profits for the quarter reached US$158.6 million, compared to profits of US$148.5 million in the prior quarter and US$38 million a year ago.

Qualcomm, the largest wireless chipmaker, has said the mobile phone industry had reached a "transformative stage" as it reported third-quarter sales and profits ahead of expectations.

Applied Materials has announced it will stop new sales of its "turnkey" SunFab thin-film solar manufacturing line and concentrate on silicon solar and LED lighting. The restructuring of its Energy and Environmental Solutions business will lead to the elimination of 400-500 positions and a third-quarter charge between US$375-425 million.

Programmable logic vendor Altera set a new all-time high in quarterly sales in the second quarter of 2010. It also beat consensus analyst expectations for sales and net income during the quarter.

Google posted a note on the Nexus One website to explain that it no longer will sell its Nexus One phones online. While it will continue to sell through Vodafone in Europe, KT in Korea and a few others, the experiment of Google selling a phone direct to consumers online is dead.

But publishers said it is still too early to gauge for the entire industry whether the growth of e-books is cannibalizing sales of paperback books, a huge and crucial market. Amazon's chief executive, Jeff Bezos, also countered the perception that sales of the company's Kindle e-reading device had suffered due to competition from other devices, such as Apple's iPad.

Sony Ericsson posted its second consecutive quarterly profit Friday as strong sales of newly launched mobile phones in the second quarter helped reverse heavy year-earlier losses.

"However, global economic recovery that started in the second half of 2009 is in danger of slowing down due to macroeconomic problems such as the Euro crisis, continued high unemployment in the US...," said IDC analyst. "In such a scenario, the expected growth in the second half of 2010 may be pushed into early 2011."

The maker of high-speed memory chips changed its focus during a downturn, from retail to direct sales to device makers and sellers, and the company's shares have soared.

The US unemployment rate fell to 9.5% in June 2010 from 9.7% in May. Analysts say that high unemployment has kept consumer confidence low, preventing retail sales from growing rapidly.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion on Thursday posted a 20% increase in first-quarter profit, but sales and handset shipments fell below Wall Street's forecast.

Aixtron and Veeco dominate what's known as the MOCVD market for LED applications and have been seeing strong demand amid increasing display sales for items such as TVs. But some investors have worried demand and bookings could soon weaken as the LED market sees excess supply.

Defying skeptics, iPhone sales tripled in the most recent quarter

Apple questions research that says smartphones using Google's Android OS have surpassed iPhone sales in the US.

Motorola's mobile phone division is on track to return to profitability in the fourth quarter of this year boosted by strong firstquarter sales of Google Android-powered smartphones.

Xilinx has reported revenues of US$529.0 million for the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2010, up 3% sequentially and 34% on year. It expects sales for the current quarter to grow 5-9% sequentially.

Nokia will launch a digital music service in China, in a high-risk move to make inroads into the world's largest mobile phone market where sales have been crippled due to Internet piracy.