Gadgets and Tech in the Philippines

Consumer Electronics Teardowns The cost to make an iPod, Xbox, and other electronics has big bottom-line implications at Apple, Microsoft, and their peers. Some companies are willing to swallow losses on some gadgets -- for instance, gaming consoles -- in hopes that they'll make up the difference, and then some, on sales of related gear, such as video game software. Other companies, including Apple, are able to sell many products for a healthy profit from the get-go. More from BusinessWeek.com: • iPad Component Costs Leave Room for Price Cuts • Buyers Guide to E-Readers • Components for Google's Nexus One May Cost $174 Market research company iSuppli takes it upon itself to tear down popular gadgets to find out the price of the component parts and the vendors supplying those ingredients. A rundown of several recent iSuppli teardowns follows -- each slide lists the product, maker, release date, retail price on the release date, and iSuppli's estimate of the cost of material

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - – South Korean firm Samsung Electronics unveiled Sunday a new smartphone to lead the charge in its strategy to boost its share of the fast-growing segment of the mobile phone industry. The firm unveiled the slick Samsung Wave smartphone at a launch party in Barcelona, Spain, on the eve of the industry's biggest annual gathering, the Mobile World Congress. The phone, to be launched in May, is the first device fitted with Samsung's new mobile operating system, Bada, which was unveiled late last year. "This is a new era, the smartphone era," JK Shin, Samsung Electronics head of mobile communications business, said at the event, which featured a huge video presentation with splashing waves and a live dance act. "Samsung is committed to making the smartphone era available for everyone. We are committed to making the smartphone era a true democracy for billions of people on all continents in all corners of the world," Shin said. Jean-Phili

One of Lenovo's latest releases, the ThinkPad X100e is a capable laptop in a tiny package. The X100e is only 11.1 by 7.4" deep. That makes it close to a netbook size but with a more powerful processor. This comes with a AMD Athlon Neo X2 Single-Core MV-40 ( 1.60GHz 512KB ), not bad for a laptop this size. You won't be disappointed with the memory either, 2GB on board will be more than enough for editting office files or playing some games. Hard disk is at 320GB. Battery life is enough for a whole flight from Baguio to Dallas, 13.2 hours on a single charge, thanks to the 6 cell lithium ion battery. This will cost around P40,000 here in the Philippines.