A focus on higher-margin products and strong sales in middleware and microelectronics helped fuel IBM Corp. first quarter profit, the company said Tuesday.

Strong results from Fujitsu Ltd.'s hard-disk drive and mobile phone divisions should push the company's profits for the year just ended higher than expected, it said Tuesday.

Shares of Palm Inc. were trading up slightly at midday Friday, boosted by a strong third-quarter financial report and an optimistic forecast for the fourth quarter.

Sales and profits at Trend Micro Inc. reached record levels in 2005 despite the company incurring millions of dollars in costs after releasing a faulty update to its antivirus software early in the year.

IDC reported on Thursday that high-end devices helped contribute to the shipment of 825 million mobile phones in 2005.

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday reported the highest quarterly revenue in company history for its fiscal 2006 second quarter on the strength of its Windows OS and a series of highly anticipated product releases. Still, the company fell slightly shy of analysts' revenue expectations.

Intel Corp.'s poor performance in the last three months of 2005 turned out to be good news for rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc., (AMD) which on Wednesday reported better-than-expected financial results for the period. With sales of AMD's microprocessor division increasing nearly 80 percent from the previous year, the company reported revenue of US$1.84 billion.

When 21-year-old British student Alex Tew needed to raise money to pay for his university, he came up with an idea many might dismiss as wishful thinking: raise US$1 million by selling 1 million pixels worth of advertising space on his Web site for $1 each.

Sharp Corp. is planning to increase production at its two LCD (liquid crystal display) factories in Japan in response to anticipated soaring demand for flat-panel LCD televisions over the next few years, it said Wednesday. The company also expects to report record sales in 2006.

Holiday sales at top U.S. technology retailers over the past few weeks sparkled, with iPod music players and LCD (liquid crystal display) displays leading the charge, executives said Friday.