iSuppli is reporting that the manufacturing and components cost of 8GB iPhone 3G is about $173 per unit, which is $53 less than the earlier iteration of the iPhone that was about $226. Apple and AT&T will sell the iPhone 3G for $199 for 8GB version, but AT&T will subsidize the price of each phone –an estimated $499 for each phone. According to iSuppli Apple’s profit on each 8GB unit will be around $281 or about 56 percent.  The above cost and profit estimations don’t include software development, packaging, shipping, distribution, marketing, accessories included with each phone and other miscellaneous expenses. Aside form 3G chipset and GPS most of the components used in the iPhone will remain unchanged. The most expensive parts in the iPhone as before will remain the memory chips. The 8GB NAND flash is around $23, and about double for 16GB chips. But the biggest chunk of manufacturing and component cost goes towards royalties for patented 3G technologies and that is about $45. iSuppli says that Apple will benefit from further declines in the component prices, as price tag is likely to drop to $148 in 2009 from the current $173.
[Via Business Week]

Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbu reported today that Panasonic is working on OLED displays and the panels will be produced on a parallel assembly line at Panasonic’s new IPS Alpha factory. The newspaper further added that Panasonic’s R&D is focusing on 37-inch OLED for retail launch in next three years. Panasonic has previously confirmed that they are looking in next generation display technology and are working on OLED screens, but they have never commented about the size of screen or time when they will launch their OLED TV. Sony and Samsung have already said that they will launch medium sized OLED screens by 2010, so it is about time that Panasonic also joins the OLED race.
 [Via Engadget]

When Apple released Safari 3 last year it claimed that it was the fastest browser available. According to Apple Safari 3 was 4.5 times faster than Firefox 2 in JavaScript performance. That changed when Firefox 3 beta was announced as it almost eliminated the performance gap. According to the latest test done by Ars Technica using SunSpider, Safari 3 and Firefox 3 are very close in performance. But WebKit’s latest build that includes new SquirrelFish JavaScript engine was 1.5x faster than both Safari and Firefox. The same SquirrelFish JavaScript engine will be used in Safari 4 giving it a clear edge on Firefox 3. The SquirrelFish engine is faster for JavaScript because it uses the new just-in-time bytecode interpreter instead of the more common tree-traversal interpreters. According to Ars “Though JavaScript performance isn't the only factor in overall browser performance, the popularity of web application frameworks like SproutCore make JavaScript performance an important consideration. And as web-based applications become more common, Safari could come to be known as the best "platform" for running them.” I totally agree with them, I have been big fan of Firefox (Firefox was my only browser of choice) but since Apple has launched Safari 3, I am using both the browsers equally.

Nokia today announced it has launched a cash offer to acquire all of the shares of Symbian Limited at a price of EUR 3.647 per share. Nokia already owns 48% share in Symbian and will purchase the remaining 52% of Symbian shares for EUR 264 million ($410 million). According to Nokia the acquisition is a fundamental step in the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, announced by Nokia, together with AT&T, LG, Motorola, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone.
“This is a significant milestone in our software strategy,” said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO of Nokia. “Symbian is already the leading open platform for mobile devices. Through this acquisition and the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, it will undisputedly be the most attractive platform for mobile innovation. This will drive the development of new and compelling, web-enabled applications to delight a new generation of consumers.”
Nokia also said that the Symbian Foundation will unify the Symbian mobile platform and will provide royalty-free open platform. The foundation is expected to start operating during first half of 2009 and the membership of the foundation will be open to all organizations for a low annual fee of US $1,500. The foundation will move the platform to open source during next two years, with the intent to use the Eclipse Public License. This will make the platform code available to all for free. So why suddenly Nokia decided to buy Symbian and make it open source, well there are three companies responsible of this - RIM, Apple and Google. Though Symbian has 60% smartphone market share, the interest in the platform hasn’t matched the interest shown by developers for the iPhone or Android platform. RIM has almost doubled it market share in about 18 months, Apple has reached 7 percent in less than 12 months even though it is selling iPhone in just 6 countries and Google’s Android has been the talk of the town since it was announced last year. So the only option left for Nokia to get the developers excited for the Symbian OS was to make it open source, which might accelerate development for the Symbian platform.
[Via Nokia & Symbian Foundation]

Logitech today announced its first Mac only webcam with premium autofocus technology and Carl Zeiss optics. The new webcam is designed to deliver image-perfect detail and clarity, and exceptional video calling with iChat and Skype. The webcam uses a voice coil motor for its autofocus system, instead of a stepper motor. Focusing is fast and fluid – crisp even in extreme close-ups only 10 cm from the camera lens. The 2-megapixel sensor helps the Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro webcam for Mac capture video images in high resolution. The new webcam will give VGA quality video at up to 30 frames per second for video chat via iChat or Skype. The Quickcam can record video clips in 720p resolution or take pictures at 2-megapixel resolution. The Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro webcam for Mac is expected to be available in the U.S. and Europe beginning in July. The suggested retail price in the U.S. is $129.99.
[Via Logitech]

JVC had showcased their world’s thinnest 1080p LCD TVs at CES this year and said that they will ship around summer of 2008. Today, JVC announced that the 42” LT-42SL89 and 46” LT-46SL89 would ship next month. The LCD TV at its thinnest is 1.5” thick and at its thickest near the centre point is 2.9” thick, making the TV one of the thinnest 42” and 46” HDTVs around. Both the TVs have built-in TV tuner, three HDMI inputs, two Component inputs, one S-video jack, one VGA port and USB port. If you are a eco-conscious consumer the sets will please you also as they consumes only 145W power, far less than most 42” or 46” LCD TVs consume. The 42” LT-42SL89 will cost $1,899 and the 46” LT-46SL89 will be priced $2,399.

Sony today announced three new AV receivers with 1080p support for Europe. The top of the line SRT-DG820 comes with HD audio support. The receiver support Dolby True HD, DTS Master Audio and eight-channel Linear PCM. The STR-DG820 has four HDMI inputs, four digital audio inputs and A/V inputs for five more sources. The receiver can process full HD at 24fps with Deep Color and x.v.Color for complete Blu-ray support. The audio is sent out through seven channel of 100W each and a subwoofer connection.
The second model STR-DG720 has three HDMI inputs and doesn’t support Dolby True HD or DTS Master Audio, otherwise it is almost identical to STR-DG820. The last in the lineup STR-DG520 has five channels of 100W audio output. It has two HDMI inputs and supports 1080p at 24fps.
All the three systems will have HDMI 1.3, BRAVIA Sync for unifying remote control, auto calibration and Sony Digital Media port for plugging in WiFi/Bluetooth adaptor, iPod or Walkman PMP. The receivers are available now in Europe with price ranging from $200 to $400.

Intel plans to ship three Nehalem architecture based Bloomfield processors and new matching mainboard chipset in fourth quarter. Intel has not announced the official names of the upcoming processors, but internally the processors are identified by their codenames XE for 3.2GHz processor, P1 for 2.93GHz processor and MS3 for 2.66GHz processor. All the processor will have 8MB L3 cache, Multi-threading and 130W TDP. The X58 and ICH10 chipset combination will also be launched with the new processors. The X58 chipset will get the new QuickPath Interconnect architecture for data transfer between the system and the processor. The new platform will see a performance increase of 15 to 30 percent as a result of the new processor and date transfer architecture. The new platform will also feature four PCI Express 8x slots and support AMD’s Quad CrossFireX technology. There is no word on when Intel will be able to license Nvidia’s SLI technology for the platform. By not licensing SLI technology to Intel, Nvidia is shooting itself in the foot. Gamers normally adopt multiple graphics card systems and for past few years Intel’s CPUs have been the number one choice for gamers. To make room for the new processors Intel will phase out Core 2 Extreme QX6850 and QX6800 in July and Core 2 Quad Q9550 and Q9650 in first quarter of 2009.
[Via DigiTimes]

For past few months LCD Panel makers have been pushing to switch from 16:10 aspect ratio LCDs in laptops to more standard 16:9 aspect ratio LCDs. Vendors, like Lenovo, Asustek and Acer will start the roll out of 16:9 aspect ratio LCDs with their new 14-inch notebook in fourth quarter. It is believed that 14-inch LCD will subsequently replace the 14.1-inch LCD screens. AU Optronics and Chi Mei optoelectronics will start volume production of 14-inch panels in the fourth quarter, while the LG display and Chunghwa Picture Tubes will follow them in first quarter of 2009. The new 14-inch LCDs will feature 16:9 aspect ratio and LED backlighting making them more consumer and environment friendly. LCD panel makers believe that most of the consumer notebook market will eventually shift to 16:9 aspect ratio LCD panels for better multimedia experience. We will get some idea if consumer notebook will adopt the 16:9 aspect ratio or not, when the 14-inch notebooks hit the market in fourth quarter.

Gartner is reporting that the number of installed PCs worldwide has surpassed 1 billion units. Gartner analysts estimate the worldwide installed base of PCs is growing just under 12 percent and by 2014 it will surpass 2 billion units. Gartner defines the installed base of PCs as the estimated number of PCs in use as opposed to the number shipped over a given period. Around 58% percent of the worlds PCs install base is in mature markets like US, Western Europe and Japan, but these markets only account for 15 percent of world’s population. Luis Anavitarte, research vice president at Gartner said, “whereas mature markets accounted for just under 60 percent of the first billion installed PCs, we expect emerging markets to account for approximately 70 percent of the next billion installed PCs.” It took PCs 30 years to reach one billion mark, but it will reach the next billion in just 6 years. You can read the complete Gartner report here.

Motorola joined hands with Kodak to announce a new line of camera phones called Motorola Zine series. The first model, the ZN5, will have a 5-megapixel camera, Xenon flash, white balance setting, brightness settings, noise reduction, panorama mode, multi-shot mode, auto-focus and 4x digital zoom. Motorola is using Kodak’s imaging technology and Kodak EasyShare software for high quality images and easy access to Kodak online “Ofoto” service or other web sharing sites, moving off pictures easily to other device and printing off the images. The sliding lens cover when opened will switch the phone to camera mode automatically. The shutter and zoom controls will be on the top of the phone to give the phone a camera like feel. On the phone side of ZN5, it will have GSM/EDGE, Motorola’s CrystalTalk, FM radio, SMS, MMS, Bluetooth, WiFi, music player, speakerphone, personal organizer, 350MB of onboard memory and microSD card slot. The Zine ZN5 will first ship in China in July 2008 and is expected to roll out around the globe throughout the remainder of the year.