Samsung Q3 2012 operating profits grow by over 85% Y-o-Y despite recent legal battles with Apple costing over $1 billion-- allowing Samsung to remain the biggest technology company in the world (by sales).

Strong global Galaxy smartphone sales are the fuel behind the strong growth in both revenues and profit. Revenues for Q3 2012 reach $46-47.7bn (up from $37.2bn in Q3 2011) and operating profit totals $7.1-7.5bn (up from $3.8bn).

More detailed Q3 2012 numbers will be available by the end of October 2012.

According to analysts smartphone sales counteract weaker performance from the semiconductor division, currently hurt by a PC market with weak memory demand. A later than expected iPhone 5 launch also (perhaps fittingly) hurt the earnings, what with Samsung being the biggest component supplier to Apple.

When it comes to Q4 2012, Samsung hopes for a bost from both Galaxy Note 2 tablet, a future smaller version of the Galaxy S3 and high-end LED display and TV sales.

Go Samsung Q3 2012 Earnings Guidance

Go Samsung Boosted by Smartphone Sales (FT.com)

HTC sees a disappointing Q3 2012, with net profit falling by -79% Y-o-Y to reach $133.2 million, a massive decline from the $636.5m net profits in Q3 2011.

Revenues for the quarter total $2.4 billion-- a decline from Q3 2011 revenues of $4.64bn.

HTC fortunes took a turn for the worse on H2 2011, following the company's building of a strong global Android smartphone brand. However recent offerings such as the One X and One failed to make much noise over huge Apple and Samsung launches.

The company still has new products in store, such as the Windows Phone 8-powered 8X and 8S handsets and updated Android flagship One X+.

Go HTC Unaudited Q3 2012 Results

AMD claims potential customers will soon be able to play games such as "Call of Duty" on Windows 8 tablets, through the dual-core Z-60 "Hondo" APU with integrated Radeon HD 6250 graphics.

According to the company the Z-60 beats the likes of Nividia's ARM-based Tegra 3 and Intel's Clover Trail Atom in the performance stakes-- by being able to run Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with 1024 x 768 resolution at 30 frames per second.

Being a more power-efficient version of lower-end AMD laptop chips, "Hondo" runs at 1GHz and uses 4.5W of power. It carries 80 graphics cores and is ideal for tablets 10mm thin.

According to AMD the chip should get up to 8 hours (web browsing) or 6 hours (720p HD video playback) of power from a 30Wh battery.

The company says the Z-60 hit store shelves as soon as Windows 8 launches-- although it gives no mention of OEMs actually shipping devices carrying the chip. The predecessor to Hondo, the AMD Z-01, actually appeared on only one tablet, the MSI WindPad 110W.

Go AMD Z-Series APU for Tablets

Motorola Mobility drops the idea of using smartphones to power laptop-style accessories-- the company confirms to CNET development on the Webtop concept and the Lapdock accessory line is over.

"While consumers around the world have adopted Webtop and the concept spurred a lot of innovation in the industry, the adoption has not been strong enough to justify continued resources being allocated to developing Webtop on future devices," Motorola says.

The latest batch of Motorola smartphones (starting from the Photon Q and Droid Razr M, HD and Maxx HD) do not support Webtop.

Unveiled back at CES 2011 with the Atrix 4G, Webtop remains an interesting idea-- software allowing smartphones to become the brains of either of laptop-style docks or TV entertainment hubs. Described by some as the future of mobile computing, the combination allowed for a "full PC experience" complete with touchpad support and browser.