ELECTRONICS

Apple Inc said on Thursday it plans to open 40 to 50 retail stores next year as the consumer electronics giant expands its reach to customers.

The fall in the handset market stopped in the third quarter, helped by clearing of inventories of unsold phones and booming sales on the so-called grey market in countries like China, research firm Gartner said on Thursday.

The market for mobile phone financial services in Western Europe will surge from almost zero to between 4 billion and 5 billion euros ($6-7.5 billion) by 2013, research firm Frost & Sullivan said on Thursday.

Qualcomm Inc said on Thursday that it has started providing multi-mode high-speed wireless chips to customers on a trial basis as it looks to cash in on the move to next generation wireless services.

Apple is expanding its retail business in New York by opening up a new store in the city's Upper West side this Saturday, Nov. 14.

The fall in the handset market stopped in the third quarter, helped by clearing of inventories of unsold phones and booming sales on the so-called grey market in countries like China, research firm Gartner said on Thursday.

Hewlett-Packard Co is making a move into the network equipment market by striking a $3.1 billion deal for 3Com Corp, in a major challenge to Cisco Systems Inc.

Advanced Micro Devices said it expects to report profits next year from its chip design business, the backbone of a company trying rebuild market share and better compete with rival Intel Corp.

Orange UK on Tuesday started selling Apple's popular iPhone in the country with the first-day sales of 30,000, CNet reported on Wednesday.

Black Friday 2009 deals are being unveiled by major retailers in the United States. Target, Kohl's and Best Buy are some of the companies with special deals for this year's Black Friday.

US based personal computer maker Hewlett-Packard announced Wednesday it is acquiring 3Com. This acquisition deal is worth $ 2.7 billion, or $7.90 a share.

Hewlett-Packard Co struck a deal to buy network equipment maker 3Com Corp for $2.7 billion to step up competition against Cisco Systems Inc and expand into China.

Hewlett-Packard Co struck a deal to buy network equipment maker 3Com Corp for $2.7 billion to step up competition against Cisco Systems Inc and expand into China.

Acer and Apple have gained the most market share in PC sales in Europe, especially in the UK, while most other vendors are facing a difficult time, Gartner said in a research note on Wednesday.

Motorola Inc is in the early stages of looking into a potential sale of its $4.5 billion television set-top box and network equipment business, two sources said on Wednesday.

The world's two largest cellphone makers, Nokia and Samsung Electronics, unveiled on Tuesday their latest rivals to the iPhone as Apple became the top profit generator in the handset industry.

In the longstanding rivalry between Japan and South Korea, near-neighbour North Asian technology industry heavyweights, the pendulum has swung Korea's way, helped by currency shifts, but also due to marketing and product savvy and nimbler production strategies.

Logitech said it is buying privately held LifeSize Communications for $405 million, bolstering its position in the much-prized video communication market, which is seen as a key source of future growth.

The world's largest mobile phone maker Nokia launched three new CDMA phones on Wednesday and said it remained committed to the standard, which has long been overshadowed by the more global GSM.

When Slovakia adopted the euro in January, Alexander Joszay loved driving across the border to Hungary, where financial crisis had weakened the forint to deliver lower prices for euro-earners.

A settlement between mobile phone users and companies that charged them for downloaded ringtones and games they thought were free was approved by a court on Tuesday.