In what is surely a bid to fill depleted pockets RIM sells off cloud services provider NewBay to mobile software Synchronoss Technologies for $55.5 million in cash. 

Suggestions NewBay would be up for sale first emerged on August 2012. 

“By adding NewBay's technology assets and millions of subscribers, this transaction further establishes Synchronoss as the clear leader in providing cloud based mobile content services for mobile operators around the world," Synchronoss CEO Stephen G. Waldis comments. 

The price is around half of what RIM is believed to have paid for Newbay ($100m) on October 2011. Back then RIM wanted to compete with cloud storage services of the Amazon Cloud Drive, Google Drive and Apple iCloud variety. 

Other related acquisitions by the BlackBerry maker from the period include contact management firm Gist and appointment management tool Tungle, while rumours suggested a cross-platform version of BlackBerry Messenger was in the works. 

However now both Gist and Tungle are shut down, and RIM is set to focus on one set of products running on the latest version of BlackBerry OS. 

Go Synchronoss Technologies Announces Acquisition of NewBay

According to a leaked internal email from CEO Yang Yanqing, Lenovo will split into separate consumer and enterprise units from April 2013-- the Lenovo Business Group (LBG) and Think Business Group (TBG).

Senior VP (mobile digital home) Liu Jun will lead LBG, which will focus the mainstream with consumer and business PCs and tablets, smartphones and smart TVs.

The second TBG unit is led by Senior VP (products Group) Dr. Peter Hortensius and will sell high-end Think products, enterprise workstations and servers through the incorporation of the recently formed Lenovo Enterprise Product Group.

The company will also split global business into four markets-- EMEA, China, N. America, and Asia-Pacific - Latin America.

Lenovo acquired the IBM PC business (and associated "Think" trademarks) for $650 million in cash and a further $600m in stock back in 2005. In his memo Yanqing admits Lenovo needs to do better in the higher end of the market, and the Think brand is the asset that should do the job.

Otherwise Lenovo is growing from strength to strength-- according to Gartner it was the only vendor to show growth (7.7% Y-o-Y) in W. Europe during Q3 2012, beating Dell to the #4 position in the quarterly vendor rankings.

Go Lenovo Divided into Two Groups (Sina Tech)

Nvidia announces its latest generation mobile processor at CES 2013-- the Tegra 4. The company claims it is the fastest yet, with "record-setting performance and battery life."

The Tegra 4 retains the 4-plus-1 setup of the Tegra 3 while using new architecture with 72 GPU cores and, rumours insist, a 28nm manufacturing process (up from 40nm for the Tegra 3).

The CPU inside is the quad-core ARM Cortex A-15.

Nvidia promises not only superior power consumption (up to 45% less than the previous chip) but also advanced mobile high-dynamic range (HDR) photography and video capabilities, demoed at the show by CEO Jen-Hsun Huang on an unnamed Windows RT tablet.

Global 4G LTE voice and data support comes through an optional chipset, the 5th generation Nvidia Icera i500.

Nvidia gives no release date for the Tegra 4, which also resides in the company's newly revealed Project Shield handheld gaming device.

Go Nvidia Introduces World's Fastest Mobile Processor

Amazon already makes tablets, so why not smartphones? Taiwan Economic News claims the online retailer is set to launch such a device sometime "between Q2 and Q3 2013."

According to the source Amazon already has a manufacturer, Foxconn, and plans to ship around 5 million units of the unconfirmed device by 2013's end. Ambitious! Apparently Foxconn needed big pay day after major customers (chiefly Nokia) were bested by the competition.

Other Taiwanese parts suppliers, including J Touch and Young Fast Optoelectrics, might also get a slice of the Amazon smartphone pie.

If Amazon does get to make a smartphone it will likely repeat the Kindle eReader/tablet pricing strategy, with a price set at around $100-$200.

Taiwan Economic News also says Amazon is working on the next Kindle Fire tablet generation, with Quanta and Compal supplying parts.

Go Foxconn Allegedly Manufacturing Amazon Smartphone