APPLE NEWS ON FASTMOVING

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s quarterly operating profit surged 26 percent to a new record, matching estimates and powered by a strong recovery in its memory chip business as smartphone sales growth eases sharply. read more

HTC Corp’s chief executive has handed some duties to the company’s chairwoman as the smartphone maker struggles to claw back market share from Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the Financial Times reported. read more

Samsung Electronics has offered to stop taking rivals such as Apple to court in Europe over patent disputes in order to end an antitrust investigation, European Union regulators said on Thursday. read more

Paris - Coca-Cola has lost its crown as the world's best brand, a closely watched survey said last month, unseated by the iconic iPhone and iPad maker Apple. read more

BlackBerry Ltd is expected to draw preliminary interest from technology companies, buyout firms and Canadian pension funds, but its fate may ultimately rest in the hands of its largest shareholder, Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.  read more

South African mobile operators and banking institutions top the list of South Africa’s most valuable brands, according to a new report. read more

Microsoft Corp’s Surface tablets have yet to make any profit as sputtering sales have been eclipsed by advertising costs and an accounting charge, according to the software company’s annual report. read more

The worldwide mobile phone market grew 6.0% year over year in the second quarter of 2013 (2Q13), while the shipment of smartphones grew 52.3% according to the International Data Corporation (IDC). read more

BlackBerry will likely face tough questions about its future at its annual meeting on Tuesday after dismal quarterly results last week triggered a 28 percent plunge in the Canadian smartphone maker’s share price. read more

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd slapped a $13,000 (R131,118) price tag on its first curved, super-thin OLED television to go on sale, the same price as rival LG Electronics Inc and one that underscores the high costs of the technology. read more

According to a new forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, tablet shipments are expected to grow 58.7% year over year in 2013 reaching 229.3 million units, up from 144.5 million units last year. read more

Tokyo - Apple raised prices of iPads and iPods in Japan on Friday, becoming the highest-profile brand to join a growing list of foreign firms asking Japanese consumers to pay more as a weakening yen squeezes profit. read more

Wearable computing is emerging as the type of significant technology shift that will drive innovation in the way personal computing did in the 1980s or mobile computing and tablets are doing currently, said Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Mary Meeker at the All Things D conference on Wednesday. read more

New York - Wal-Mart Stores once again leads Fortune's list of the 500 biggest US companies by revenue, as the world's biggest retailer succeeded in posting strong growth despite a challenging economy for its shoppers. read more

An estimated 405 million handsets, including 197 million smartphones, were shipped in the first quarter of 2013, according to market intelligence firm ABI Research.  read more

Seoul - Samsung on Friday released the latest version of its flagship Galaxy smartphone, as it announced record first quarter profits driven by surging sales growth in its mobile division. read more

San Francisco - Apple reported on Tuesday that its quarterly profit dipped for the first time in nearly a decade as it squeezed less money from its champions in the competitive smartphone and tablet markets. read more

Nokia’s push to expand sales of its Lumia smartphones in new markets such as China should help shrink an overall revenue decline and reduce its first-quarter loss, easing some of the pressure on CEO Stephen Elop.  read more

Munich - Apple has lost its patent protection in Germany for "slide to unlock," one of the most familiar features of its iPhones and iPads, with a court ruling that it was not a solution to something that had previously been a technical problem.  read more

New York - The Wall Street Journal says Apple is set for a possible summer launch of the next iPhone, rather than a fall launch like the last two models. read more

Toronto - BlackBerry announced an unexpected quarterly profit on demand for the new touchscreen device that holds the key to its successful turnaround, but revenue remained far below year-earlier levels.  read more

Michael Dell is about to find out if other bidders think his company is worth more than he does.  read more

Taipei - Taiwan's HTC on Sunday announced its much-anticipated new flagship smartphone will go on sale in three countries this week, although the rollout elsewhere will only take place by the end of April. read more

Intel Corp’s media group has been on a hiring spree as it prepares to launch an Internet television service later this year, underscoring the chip maker’s seriousness about the new business. read more

Sony Corp’s board chairman, Howard Stringer, who headed the company as chief executive for six years until last April, will retire from Japan’s struggling consumer electronics giant in June, the Financial Times reported. read more

Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook could be deposed in the government’s lawsuit against the company over alleged price-setting in the e-book market. read more

Samsung Electronics is beefing up its tablet range with a competitor to Apple’s iPad Mini that sports a pen for writing on the screen.  read more

Brazil’s copyright regulator on Wednesday stripped Apple Inc of the right to use its iPhone trademark in that country, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Wednesday. read more

Seoul - LG Electronics unveiled Monday the latest version of its flagship smartphone, boasting a higher resolution screen aimed at gaining a technical edge over bigger rivals like Samsung. read more

Raleigh, N.C. -- Apple, Costco and The Container Store top the “2012 100 Best Retailers To Work For” list compiled by The Retail Life online retail community, which was developed by Headway Workforce Solutions. DSW and American Eagle outfitters round out the top five. read more

Top chipmaker Intel Corp plans to launch an Internet television service this year with live and on-demand content, entering a hotly competitive race as its core PC business erodes. read more

San Francisco - Apple CEO Tim Cook termed a shareholder lawsuit against the company a "silly sideshow", but says he is open to looking at the shareholder's proposals for sharing more cash with investors.  read more

Apple Inc. is experimenting with the design of a device similar to a wristwatch that would operate on the same platform as the iPhone and would be made with curved glass, the New York Times reported on Sunday. read more

Michael Dell once gave up day-to-day control of the computer company that bears his name – and everything began to go south. Now the billionaire is cementing his grip over the firm to try to restore it to its former glory.  read more

Washington - Worldwide tablet sales jumped in the fourth quarter beyond even some of the most optimistic forecasts to 52.5 million, with Android-powered devices pacing growth, a survey showed on Thursday. read more

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs threatened to file a patent lawsuit against Palm if that company’s chief executive didn’t agree to refrain from poaching Apple employees, according to a court filing made public on Tuesday. read more

Seoul - Samsung Electronics said Monday that global sales of its flagship Galaxy S smartphones had topped 100 million since the first model debuted in 2010, cementing its dominant position over US rival Apple.  read more

Google’s Android software, the most widely used smartphone operating system, is making the leap to rice cookers and refrigerators as manufacturers vie to dominate the market for gadgets controlled via the internet.  read more

Intel presented new manufacturing technology that it said keeps it on track to launch a new generation of chips for smartphones and tablets as it rushes to catch up with Qualcomm and other rivals in the fast-growing mobile market. read more

Google‘s Android operating system is now on three of every four smartphones shipped in the third quarter, according to an International Data Corporation (IDC) report.  read more

Seoul - Samsung Electronics, the world's top technology firm by revenue, reported record quarterly profit of $7.4-billion on Friday, with strong sales of its Galaxy range of phones masking sharply lower memory chip sales. read more

Apple Inc took the wraps off an 8-inch tablet on Tuesday in its biggest product move since the debut of the iPad two years ago, launching a smaller version of the gadget into a market staked out by Amazon.com Inc and Google Inc. read more

Apple Inc lost its appeal of a ruling that its rival Samsung‘s Galaxy tablet computer did not copy Apple’s registered tablet designs in a British court on Thursday. read more

LG Electronics Inc unveiled its latest high-end smartphone packed with powerful hardware upgrades on Tuesday, as the struggling South Korean firm tries to win market share from Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd in the crucial holiday quarter. read more

Apple’s debut of its redesigned iPhone will test anew its high-stakes strategy of once-a-year upgrades for a product that accounts for about 70 percent of the company’s profits.  read more

Cape Town - Samsung's new Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 was unveiled in Johannesburg last night and is set to hit local stores as early as next month.  read more

New York - Apple's $1bn court win against Samsung is translating into a much bigger jump in its market value, AP reported on Monday.  read more

Apple shares hit a new all-time high Friday as US stocks closed out the week with a second day of solid gains that put the Dow at its highest level since the last days of 2007.  read more

Samsung Electronics’ new tablet, first unveiled in February this year, is the South Korean electronics giant’s latest attempt to wrest market share from Apple, but it is not being heralded as an iPad killer. read more

San Francisco - Apple on Tuesday reported a rise in its quarterly profit to $8.8bn on hot iPad sales but missed lofty Wall Street expectations due, in part, to iPhone lovers waiting for a rumoured new model.  read more

New York - Apple is preparing to launch a smaller tablet computer in the coming months in a bid to maintain its edge in an increasingly crowded market, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. read more

Shanghai — Apple has paid $60m to Proview Technology (Shenzhen) to end a dispute over the iPad trademark in China that saw the world’s most valuable technology company engaged in a protracted legal tussle with a nearly bankrupt Chinese company. read more

Google opened two new fronts in the computer hardware wars on Wednesday with the launch of a new 7-inch tablet and a living-room media device running its latest Android software that it hopes will challenge Apple, Amazon and Microsoft.  

Los Angeles - Microsoft introduced its own line of tablet computers on Monday at a much-hyped press event in Los Angeles, marking a major strategic shift for the software giant as it struggles to compete with Apple and reinvent its ageing Windows franchise. read more

Samsung Electronics, sanctioned by a US judge for its failure to produce source code in a patent-infringement case in San Jose, California, will be unable to use some evidence to defend itself against Apple.  read more

Samsung Electronics reported a record $5,2bn profit in the first quarter on Friday, overtaking Nokia as the top cellphone seller, and its Galaxy smartphones outsold Apple’s iPhone at the top of the market.  read more

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) shoppers will get an eight-hour head start in buying Apple Inc.’s new iPad.  read more

Proview International Holdings Ltd. (334), which claims ownership of the iPad trademark in China, asked retailers to stop selling Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s tablet computer as the dispute between the two companies intensified.  read more

Japan’s biggest makers of phones, televisions and chips say they’ll lose about $17 billion this year, about three-quarters of what Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) will spend on research to lengthen the lead over its competitors. read more

Apple Inc. (AAPL) named the chief executive officer of the largest U.K. consumer-electronics retailer to run its stores, ending more than seven months of searching for an executive to oversee international expansion. read more

New York - Apple shares soared on Wednesday following blockbuster quarterly earnings and the California gadget-maker briefly surged past ExxonMobil to become the largest US company in terms of market value.  read more

Seoul - Samsung Electronics has filed new claims in its patent war with Apple over alleged patent infringements in Germany, a spokesperson for the company said on Monday. read more

Sydney - An Australian court on Wednesday reversed a ban on the sale of Samsung Electronics' Galaxy tablet computers in the country, handing it a rare victory against rival Apple in the firms' intensifying global patent war.  read more

Apple products have always cost more than the equivalent products elsewhere. It's one of the reasons that Apple has historically had very high brand loyalty and very low market share - a classic luxury good combination. read more

Shoppers at US Walmart stores can now research the trove of product data the world’s largest retailer gathers, through a new iPad app and updated app for iPhones. read more