Smartphone manufacturer HTC is considering switching to Samsung's mobile application processors, industry sources said. HTC currently uses Qualcomm processors.

"While our Q2 results were clearly disappointing, we are executing well on the initiatives that are most important to our longer term competitiveness," CEO Stephen Elop said. "Some progress is already evident, and thus we are targeting to end this year with more net cash and liquid assets than at the end of Q2 2011."

As of the end of June 2011, it had US$76 billion in cash and investments. No tech company has more.

Citing strong global smartphone adoption and the "expanded opportunities" afforded by its completed acquisition of Wi-Fi chipmaker Atheros, Qualcomm also raised its revenue and (non-GAAP) earnings guidance for the rest of the year.

Apple originally asserted 10 of its patents against HTC in March 2010, and the judge ruled today that HTC infringed on two patents, according to an HTC statement.

Sony Ericsson has blamed the the Japanese earthquake for a EUR50 million (US$71 million) loss during the three months to June.

Prior to HTC, Mackenzie held a progression of sales and marketing positions with DENSO Wireless and Siemens Communications, concluding as Vice President for Siemens Communications.

The news comes just weeks after Apple and Samsung accused each other of copying designs and technology.

South Korean consumer electronics giant LG Electronics has slashed its forecast for 2011 smartphone sales as the company struggles to compete against aggressive giants like HTC, Samsung and Apple.

Chipmaker Wolfson Microelectronics has lost a quarter of its value after it warned on profits after customers sold fewer products than expected and delayed new launches. The company supplies chips for smartphones and tablets for the likes of Samsung, LG and Research in Motion (but crucially, not Apple).

Shares of Taiwan's HTC are up more than 15% this year as the company cashes in on Android. Investors might be wise to seek out international funds that own the stock.

"Common sense suggests that allegations of copying are necessarily directed at Apple's existing products, to which Samsung has access and could potentially mimic," said US District Court Judge Lucy Koh, "and not at Apple's unreleased, inaccessible, next-generation products."

IC Insights forecasts 1.55 billion cellular phones will ship in 2011, a 9% increase over the 1.4 billion shipped in 2010.

Marvell Technology's CFO said Friday the company is providing chips for some of Research In Motion's (RIM) next-generation BlackBerrys, adding that the handset maker's latest struggles won't hurt Marvell more than previously projected in the near term.

After holding the top spot in the global smartphone market for years, Nokia may soon lose its dominance to Samsung and Apple, according to an investors' note from Nomura Securities.

An official Nokia statement said he had left to resolve a "personal matter" and gave no date for his return. However, a Finnish newspaper quoted sources inside Nokia saying he had left because of differences over strategy and would not return.

IDC expects Android, which passed Symbian as the leading operating system worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2010, to grow to more than 40% of the market in the second half of 2011.

The acquisition will give RIM access to Scoreloop's developer toolkit for building cross-platform social mobile games. Scoreloop said it will continue to build toolkits for other platforms but that the experience would be better on a RIM device.

Anadigics has announced that the company is shipping production volumes of its dual-band power amplifiers (PAs) to Samsung Electronics for the Droid Charge smartphone.

Japan is seeking to protect its lead in the production of touchscreen displays used in smartphones and tablet computers with a plan to merge operations owned by Sony and Toshiba into a new company that would be majority-owned by the government.

The number of internet connected devices is set to explode in the next four years to over 15 billion - twice the world's population by 2015. Cisco predicts the proliferation of tablets, mobile phones, connected appliances and other smart machines will drive this growth.

Some observers think the company would be better off focusing all its resources on a successful smartphone portfolio first, then worry about a tablet down the road.

Nokia's Windows Phones will start coming out at a relatively rapid clip after the first one appears later in 2011, said Jo Harlow, Nokia's executive vice president of smart devices.

Near Field Communication (NFC) connectivity technology transforms smart phones and other mobile devices into wallets, tickets and keys. Infineon Technologies backs this development and is launching its latest security microcontroller for NFC applications.

Accelerometers and gyroscopes didn't attract much consumer notice until they found their way into smartphones. STMicroelectronics CEO Carlo Bozotti believes this business, known as MEMS, will soon generate 10% of the company's revenues.

Sequans Communications has shipped its ten millionth 4G chip. Today, Sequans' chips are inside leading 4G devices, such as the HTC EVO 4G smartphone launched by Sprint in USA and the HTC EVO WiMAX smartphone launched by KDDI in Japan.

Microsoft will buy Nokia's mobile division for US$30bn, and the deal will be completed this year because "both companies are very much in a hurry."

CEO Paul Otellini called the MeeGo tie-in a mistake, and that the company would have been better-off choosing a different partner.

Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) has selected ST-Ericsson's Thor advanced HSPA+ modem to bring lightning-fast connectivity to its new Infuse 4G smartphone for the US market.

The acquisition of SiGe, a fabless semiconductor provider, complements Skyworks' leadership in wide area front-end solutions by adding SiGe's innovative short range, silicon-based products.

Apple has proposed a standardized SIM card smaller than those it currently uses in the iPhone and iPad in order to be able to produce thinner devices, an Orange executive was quoted as saying in a Reuters report.

Could future iPhones sport 720p displays? If you connect the dots in a news release from Toshiba, possibly.

Smartphone vendors shipped a total of 99.6 million units in the first quarter of 2011, nearly double from 55.4 million units a year ago.

HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson drove Android shipments in the first quarter, with each vendor shipping well over three million devices, said Canalys Principal Analyst Pete Cunningham.

Samsung Electronics shares are poised to drop amid increased competition and the possible loss of orders from Apple, BGC Partners said, recommending a so-called short sale of the stock.

Nokia board chairman Jorma Ollila said Tuesday that he would leave his post by the year 2012 as expected, but that he would not "throw in the towel" at the world's leading mobile phone maker before then.

The worldwide mobile phone market grew 19.8% on year in the first quarter of 2011 fueled by high smartphone growth, especially in emerging markets, and gains made by market challengers, according to IDC.

Future versions of Motorola's Atrix smartphone-laptop combo will be rolled out as Android "alternatives" to tablets and other newfangled devices, Motorola's chief executive said this week.