The fab tool industry has undergone a sea of change...

In a sign of the rapid shift away from non-smartphones, Apple has recently become the number-one provider of mobile phones, finally surpassing the Finnish giant Nokia as "feature phones" fall out of fashion.

Apple has signed a new deal with AT&T. A non-exclusive deal that is multi year and multiple product.

The Mobile Internet and Digital Home Business Group will be run by Liu Jun, formerly president of Lenovo's Product Group.

As reported, Unity recently ousted its chief executive and the company is moving from a fab to an IP model, according to sources. Unity has reportedly been on the block. And a fab alliance with Fujitsu has reportedly fallen through.

The sales decline during the quarter was driven primarily by weaker than anticipated wireless communications sales to customers in Europe and North America.

In the survey, 53% said they approved of the job Mr. Obama is doing as president, up eight percentage points from December. Forty-one percent said they disapprove of the president's performance, down from 48% last month. The poll surveyed 1,000 adults from Jan 13-17.

The struggling Finnish mobile-phone giant has abruptly canceled the U.S. launch of a smartphone that was slated to launch exclusively this year with AT&T, people familiar with the situation said. The unexpected cancellation leaves Nokia further behind in its effort to correct a major strategic weakness -- its poor showing in the lucrative U.S. market, where it lags behind Apple, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion and phones powered by Google's Android software.

The agreement extends access for ARM to assure early time-to-market readiness of the necessary platform of physical and processor IP solutions for nodes ranging from 20nm through 14nm.

Germany's planned cuts to subsidies for photovoltaic solar energy installations could take effect as early as July, people familiar with the matter have said.

ASML said it expects first-quarter net sales this year of about 1.4 billion euros (US$1.88 billion), and said the company has the potential for 2011 sales of more than five billion euros. Sales in 2010 rose to 4.51 billion euros.

Apple acknowledged that it still can't make enough iPhones to meet demand, and the addition of the Verizon iPhone will simply add to the crunch.

So far, this week's visit by President Hu Jintao has pretty much followed the same script. Supreme Leader denies his country engages in such practices, then promises it will stop them in its own sweet time, without any more meddling interference from Imperialist Running Dogs."

Just more than a week after Goldman Sachs offered its most prized clients a chance to invest in Facebook, the firm on Monday withdrew the opportunity from clients in the US because of worries that the deal could run afoul of securities regulations.

Nokia will terminate its free service of music downloads for mobile phones, Ovi Music Unlimited, in the UK and 26 other countries. The service allows Nokia mobile phones' customers to download unlimited music for free. By the end of the year, the service will be discontinued in all but six countries.

Jobs, 55, has suffered in the past decade from two serious medical conditions. In 2004, he disclosed he had surgery to remove a rare form of pancreatic tumor. In 2009, he had a liver transplant.

Foreign direct investment in China hit a record US$105.7 billion last year, highlighting growing confidence in the economy even as Beijing seeks to rein in growth. China attracted US$14.03 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in December alone, up 15.6% from a year earlier.

Shares of Elpida Memory were up 2.3% in early Tokyo trading after business daily Nikkei reported in an unsourced story that the chipmaker plans to raise DRAM prices by about 10% as early as this month.