TOKYO - Japan investigates the reason for the defect in Apple Inc.’s iPod after the emission of spark while recharging the digital music players, said a government official.

The reason for Japanese government conducting the investigation is to find out the cause why an Apple iPod nano gets overheated and emit sparks while being recharged.

An official at the trade and economy ministry, which administer the product problems, said a defect is suspected in the lithium-ion battery of the iPod Nano, model number MA099J/A.

The ministry has asked Apple Japan to investigate the cause of the incident. “It is suspected that the incident happened by the product itself,” said the official at the trade and economy ministry.

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Tokyo - Sony Corp, which is the 2nd largest maker of consumer appliances in the world, said that it would acquire a 1/3rd stake in Sharp’s LCD panel plant expected to be complete by March 2010. This is an effort by Sony to cope with increasing demand for flat televisions.

This is the latest move in the list of alliances made by Japanese flat TV manufacturers in order to secure enough LCD panels while having initial investments under control to cope with greater price declines.

In addition to LCD panels, the joint venture will also manufacture LCD modules. LCD modules are display panels furnished with components like LCD driver chips and backlight unit.

The move decrease Sony’s dependence on chief supplier Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea as LCD TV sales are expected to increase by 29 % this year. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc and UBS AG forecast the shortage of LCD TV will continue in 2008.
” This will be a positive step for Sharp as it means a big buyer, which would keep the new factory engaged,” said Kazuharu Miura, analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research.

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Tokyo:

Japanese company Toshiba announced that it had agreed to purchase high-performance semiconductor operations from its rival Sony for 835 million dollars, just a day after losing to its competitor in a tough DVD format war.

The new Playstation 3 control and box are displayed at a Sony Computer Entertainment America news conference in San Francisco, California, October 19, 2006. Sony Corp said on Wednesday it will sell its microchip production facilities in western Japan to Toshiba Corp for 90 billion yen ($835 million), in their latest move to focus on their core businesses. REUTERS/Kimberly White

In spite of being tough competitors both the companies announced that they had made up a deal to form semiconductor joint ventures were 60% is owned by Toshiba Corp. and 40% is owned by Sony Corp.

Toshiba will pay 90 billion yen to Sony for its operations in western region of Nagasaki to make high technology semiconductors, including its talent behind PlayStation 3 video game console, a joint statement said.

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