Talks between Motorola and Siemens regarding merging their wireless operations have broken down, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The University of Montreal in Canada has just announced that it has developed an iron phosphate material to replace the expensive and volatile cobalt used in making electrodes for mobile phone Li-Ion batteries.

Unisys has just disclosed plans to cut 3000 jobs as it reported that its earnings slumped 50% in the last quarter.

Commander Communications has sacked 110 workers and halved growth estimates for 2001.

Siemens has announced 2000 job cuts in its mobile networking unit, and 5000 further cuts at the land-line Information and Communication Networks division.

The Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association annual excellence awards presentation, will be held next week, Wednesday 24 October, in Sydney's Australian Technology Park.

The Asia Pacific IT industry, and consequently electronics industry, is expected to register lower revenues due to the global economic downturn and terrorist attacks, with Australia expected to be one of the most affected countries.

Peregrine Semiconductor Australia is to integrate a lithography, track and thermal system into its ultra-thin-silicon CMOS silicon-on-sapphire 0.25-micron process.

In the last week, the already depressed Australian electronics industry has been further hit by job losses across the country.

Hitachi Australia has appointed Braemac to distribute its microprocessor and components lines.

Qualcomm has announced the world's first Bluetooth version 1.1 compliant commercial chipset, the MSM5100 mobile station modem solution.

Ericsson's head of research, Hakan Eriksson, has said that the company is maintaining its current research and development budget and is already planning for 4G phones which are expected to be introduced in Japan in 2010.

A rationalisation of Alcatel's submarine cable making operations has seen the loss of 320 jobs in Australia, as its Port Botany plant in Sydney is placed in neutral.

Motorola has just said that it expects sales from ongoing operations in the fourth quarter of 2001 to be 0% to 3% higher versus the third quarter of 2001.

A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has figured out a way to transform fluorescent tube fixtures in the ceilings of airports, museums, offices and factories into inexpensive data transmitters.