Samsung Electronics, Asia's biggest maker of semiconductors, flat screens and mobile phones, reported profit that missed analysts' estimates, fueling concern the global recovery in demand for electronics is stalling.

Powerchip Technology, ProMOS Technologies and Winbond Electronics are among possible targets, Elpida President Yukio Sakamoto said in interviews this week.

The announcement follows the news release of September 8 that Anadigics' AWT6264 power amplifier is driving the WiMAX connectivity of Samsung's new Epic 4G smartphone.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee has signaled that the company's component businesses have reached a peak, suggesting that profit may fall in 2011 from this year's record level.

Earlier this week Samsung unveiled the new processor for smartphones, tablets and netbooks, which is codenamed Orion. Analysts at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said our "checks suggest that this processor also uses ARM GPU".

Anadigics has announced that its AWT6264 power amplifier drives the WiMAX connectivity in Samsung's recently-released Epic 4G handset.

"It's difficult to set a clear plan for the coming year 2011, but we're considering around 30 trillion won [in investments]," Samsung Electronics CEO Choi Gee-sung told reporters on the sidelines of consumer-electronics show IFA on September 3.

Unlike its rivals, Samsung doesn't have another flagship phone planned for the crucial holiday season, and will rely solely on its Galaxy S lineup and the upcoming Galaxy Tab tablet, which analysts say could hurt its ability to get carrier support.

Samsung has seen its semiconductor revenues rise at CAGR of 13.5% from 1999-2009, while Intel's sales have increased at a CAGR of just 3.4% in the same period. Extrapolating these growth rates, Samsung would pass Intel in semiconductor sales in 2014, according to IC Insights.

The report comes out after a similar study has been commissioned by Samsung Electronics, which itself has faced complaints that unusual clusters of cancers have occurred at its semiconductor factory in Gi-Heung, south of Seoul.

In 2005, chairman Lee Kun-hee's youngest daughter also committed suicide in her apartment in New York, where she was studying arts management as a graduate student at New York University.

Start-up Fusion-io has snagged Dell as an OEM for its ioDrive PCIe flash card accelerators.

Samsung Electronics said it would establish a 836-million-dollar fund to help South Korean contractors. The "mutual development" fund would be set up jointly with Industrial Bank of Korea, and was aimed at helping contractors receive low-interest loans for R&D from October.

With a skimpy 8% share of the US market, according to the research firm comScore, Nokia trails Samsung, LG, Motorola and Research In Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry.

Spansion on August 6 filed three complaints against Samsung, alleging patent violations in a broad range of Samsung flash memory products that go into devices like tablets and smartphones. A Spansion spokesman declined to comment on which products those may be. However, Apple's iPad and iPhone 4 use Samsung flash memory.

Samsung started a 30MW solar cell production line for research and development last September and will incrementally increase capacity to 130MW next year, company spokesman James Chung said today.