■ELECTRONICS
Sony to halt OLED TV sales
Sony said yesterday it would stop selling in Japan an ultra-thin television using organic materials because of sluggish demand, in a setback to its efforts to regain a reputation for innovation. The Japanese giant will halt domestic shipments of organic light emitting diode (OLED) TVs by the end of next month, company spokeswoman Ryoko Takagi said. Sony was the first firm to commercially launch a television using the technology in 2007, but with a price tag of about ¥200,000 (US$2,200), market reception has been lukewarm.
■SOUTH KOREA
Bank maintains low rates
South Korea’s central bank said it would maintain low borrowing costs to support the economy and raise rates once it is confident the recovery is sustained. “We will maintain the accommodative policy trend for the time being, and in future will gradually adjust the easing considering the local and overseas financial and economic conditions,” the bank said in a report submitted to lawmakers in Seoul yesterday. The Bank of Korea last Thursday kept the benchmark interest rate at 2 percent for a 12th month.
■TELECOMS
Nokia, Intel merge software
Nokia and Intel said they were combining their software for smartphones, tablet computers and other Internet-connected devices. The new software, to be released in the second quarter, will be called MeeGo and it will supersede Nokia Corp’s Maemo used in a few high-end phones. It would also replace Intel Corp’s Moblin, which it has been developing with an aim to get its own chips into phones and larger “mobile Internet devices.”
■AUTOMOBILES
EU car sales up last month
New car sales were up 12.9 percent across the EU last month compared with a year earlier, benefiting from ongoing fleet renewal schemes, the European carmakers body said yesterday. While the bloc’s biggest market, Germany, saw a decline of 4.3 percent because of the end of incentives there, Italy, Britain, Spain and France each saw big jumps in the number of new registrations. However, compared with January 2008, before the full effects of the economic crisis kicked in, car sales were down across the bloc by 17.3 percent.
■HOTELS
InterContinental profit dips
InterContinental Hotels Group said yesterday that its net profit dropped nearly 19 percent to US$213 million last year as business travelers stayed at home. “2009 was a very challenging year for the industry,” chief executive Andrew Cosslett said in the group’s earnings statement. “The fourth quarter did show some improvement ... [but] we expect trading to stay tough until business travellers return in greater numbers.” Sales by the group, which owns brands including Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn, also retreated by almost 19 percent last year to US$1.538 billion.
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