Orders for Japanese equipment used to make semiconductors fell 27.8% in July from the same month last year as chip makers reined in spending, calculations based on industry data showed on Tuesday. Orders in July came to 93.90 billion yen (US$856 million), down 0.2% from June, based on monthly order values taken from the industry group's preliminary report.

With India planning to invest US$5 billion in building the world`s largest solar power generation system, which needs for 5,000 megawatt of solar cells, the big order would accelerate Motech`s plan to tap the Indian market to seize the huge business opportunity in the future.

"Intel believes a Wimax-ready laptop could be available in the Indian market at around US$300-400 dollars in a few months," Intel India's newly appointed Managing Director for Wimax division C S Rao told PTI.

Malaysian WiMax operator Packet One Networks began commercial services Tuesday, marking another step in the ongoing rollout of the broadband wireless technology. "Our plan is to target 100,000 subscribers in the next 12 months," said Michael Lai, Packet One's CEO, in a telephone interview.

AIXTRON AG today announced an order from Formosa Epitaxy Inc. (FOREPI) for further six CRIUS Close Coupled Showerhead MOCVD systems received in the first quarter of 2008.

South Korea's LG Electronics said on Thursday the flat screen television market was poised for much slower growth in 2009, but maintained high growth targets for its own plasma and liquid crystal products.

"...the turmoil in credit markets of the past year virtually guarantees that corporate spending on technology will fall over the next nine months or so...Technology demand, which has been growing recently at an annualised rate of 5-6%, could decline by 10%..."