Intel seems very optimistic about its upcoming smartphone core, dubbed Medfield, but so far remains tight-lipped on possible partners or any further information besides saying that it is a "pretty exciting" time for them.

Solar Frontier, a unit of Japanese refiner Showa Shell Sekiyu,said it began production at a 100 billion yen(US$1.2 billion)thin-film solar module factory.

"We are excited to complete the transition to the next generation 2Xnm NAND components which reiterates our strategy of producing high performance SSDs at the most attractive price point available for consumer applications," said Ryan Petersen, CEO of OCZ Technology.

"I don't envision us using Microsoft. I would never say never but it's not something we're entertaining now," said Christy Wyatt, corporate vice president of software and services product management for Motorola.

"We would've loved if they would have chosen Android; they chose the other guys," Schmidt said during a keynote presentation here at Mobile World Congress. "I think we were pretty straightforward. We would like them to adopt Android at some point in the future; that offer remains open."

Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith reiterated that the chip giant will be a strong player in the fast-growing mobile device market despite early struggles. Intel, which provides microprocessors that run about 80% of the world's computers, has been slow to gain traction in the smartphone and tablet markets. Products based on ARM Holdings PLC (ARMH) architecture have dominated the industry, with the chips seen as much more power efficient than Intel processors.

A group of nine Nokia shareholders has published "Nokia Plan B", a manifesto "to challenge the company's strategy and partnership with Microsoft".

The company didn't even come close to its 2010 mobile phone target of 140 million units, shipping only 116.7 million, which was down slightly from the previous year.

Intel has announced that the company is sampling its 32nm "Medfield" handset chip with customers. Scheduled for introduction this year, the Medfield chip will extend the performance benefits of Intel architecture into a low-power solution specifically designed for the smartphone market segment.

At its current rate of growth, analysts see China replacing the US as the world's top economy in about a decade.

ProMOS has been negotiating with the Taiwan authorities and banks to improve its financial standing, a precondition for the firm to join the Elpida-Powerchip business integration.

Freescale Semiconductor has filed to go public on February 18, seeking to raise money to pay down its debt load.

The memory-chip industry will keep a lid on capital expenditures this year, helping avoid a repeat of the production glut that plagued the industry until 2010, Micron Technology CEO Steve Appleton said.