United States’ leading electronics retailer Best Buy has teamed up with Japan’s Panasonic Corp. to exclusively sell its first 3D TV home-entertainment system bundle in the US.

The bundle, which costs $2,899.99 in total, includes a 50-inch plasma 3D Viera set, a Blu-ray based disc player and viewing glasses.

The bundle was made available for purchase on Wednesday via Minneapolis-based Best Buy's Magnolia Home Theater unit.

In a remarkable turnaround for Phillips, the last three months of 2009 saw the electronics giant posting a profit of 251 million Euros. This is quite a comeback from 2008, when the management reported a loss of €1.2 billion.

This was a result of the cost cutting strategy put in place that resulted in the termination of 5474 jobs. However, it seems to paid off as despite decline in sales, with the fourth quarter sales falling by 3.4% to 7.3 billion Euros, the company reported high profits in all divisions .

Dutch conglomerate Philips Electronics NV reported a bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter profit on account of robust operational earnings and reduced charges, and claimed on Monday it expects to further improve profitability this year.

The company revealed its net profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31 as $367.6 million, compared with a net loss of €1.17 billion the previous year, surpassing the analysts' expectations for net profit of €255 million. Fourth-quarter sales were €7.3 billion, slightly down from €7.6 billion a year earlier.

General Electric Co. recently posted its fourth-quarter profits report, and although there was a definite decline in earnings, it was less than what the analysts had estimated. The fall in profits has mainly been attributed to the finance unit's absorption of losses, in addition to slowing in shipments of aviation and energy as compared to last year.

As per official numbers posted, earnings from continuing operations for the three months up-to December 31 fell by 22% to $3.03 Billion, or 28 cents per share, from last year's figure of $3.87, or

Sony revealed that its software’s sales are up by 14 per cent year-on-year to 11.9m units. The reason cited is the recent significant price cut and a latest model PlayStation3, which have helped the company greatly.

The company reported sales of 3.8m of the games consoles worldwide in the final five weeks of 2009.

The PS3 initially registered a sluggish growth in 2006 due to its high price. However, it gained as Sony came up with its slimmed version, priced 25% less.

Kesa Electricals, Europe's third-largest electronics retailer, has reported better-than-expected pre-tax profit of 6 million pounds for the six-month period ended October 31, against a loss of 103.8 million pounds in the year ago period.

Comet, which is an arm of Kesa, witnessed a fall in retail losses from 8.1 million pounds to 1.2 million pounds during the same period. However, it warned that difficult trading conditions would continue in the UK market.

Apple's iPhone is the most searched-for device this Christmas, research by the web metrics firm Experian Hitwise showed.

Apple's smartphone accounted for 1.75 per cent of all product searches and 14 per cent of all mobile phone searches during last month.

Apple's iPod Touch was the second most searched-for product, while Microsoft's Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation 3 were the third, fourth and fifth most searched products online.

For the first half of the current fiscal year, Kesa Electricals has revealed much better-than-expected earnings and better than forecasted like-for-like sales at the Comet chain it owns.

For the six months up-to October 31, the company managed to bag pre-tax earnings of 14.9 Million Pounds, beating the analysts' estimate pegged at nearly 12 Million Pounds. The recent figures are a substantial improvement compared to last year when the firm lost 103.8 Million Pounds due to a charge of 114 Million Pounds.

The Motorola Milestone, better known as Droid in the United States, is selling like hot cakes in the UK since its launch on December 10.

According to the eXpansys, the online retailer that owns exclusive rights to sell the Motorola Milestone, the handset made a record by getting sold in 2.5 hours after being listed ‘in stock’ on December 10.

Speaking on the issue, eXpansys CEO Roger Butterworth said, “We received the units at 10am on Thursday, 2.5 hours later we had sold out.”

Vodafone has decided to drop the extremely popular HTC HD2 from its portfolio to make a room for the Apple’s iPhone in 2010.

Vodafone said that it would not restock the HTC HD2 for the general consumer sales after finishing the existing stock.

However, speaking on the topic, Vodafone said, “We're confident the range of handsets we have in the pipeline will offer more than enough options to pick up a great handset.”

Nokia has revealed plans of shutting down its "state-of-the-art flagship store" which is located in the heart of London's Regent Street, after merely 2 years of operations. The store was originally opened in February 2008 and was described by Nokia MD Simon Ainslie as "dynamic, original and beautifully designed".

At the time of inauguration, the store was touted as the one-stop place for "world-class customer service and deliver a unique experience enhancing our customer's lifestyles".

The launch of Sony Ericsson's Xperia X2 has been postponed until January 2010, according to the Vodafone official website.

Previously, Xperia X2 was scheduled to be made available for purchase with an exclusive Vodafone deal, in the fourth quarter of this year.

Xperia X2, which is a successor to X1 model, has reportedly been equipped with a 3.2-inch display, a QWERTY keyboard, a panel-based interface, an eight megapixel camera and Windows Mobile 6.5.

Xperia X2 will miss chances of good sales at Christmas and New Year.

Sales of electronics increased in November, while clothing and luxury stumbled.

According to figures released by SpendingPulse, sales of electronics climbed 6.6 per cent in November as compared with the same period last year, helped by new videogame releases and Black Friday discounts.

Jewelry sector also reported a jump of 4.6 per cent in November.

However, sales of garments at malls slipped in 5.7 per cent during the same period.

Merely days after major British mobile phone retailers, including Carphone Warehouse, suspended sales of Sony Ericsson's Satio, the company has today officially admitted its second highly publicized smartphone setback. Ericsson has confirmed that its recently launched 'PlayStation' phone, Aino, has started encountering major technical troubles.

Over allegations that the giant electronic gadgets manufacturer has violated the competition rules in the Cathode-Ray (CTR) industry, Philips Electronics has been slapped with a "statement of objection" by the European Commission, Europe's anti-trust regulator. Although the company has not specified the exact objection raised by the agency, it did issue a statement saying that Philips would "study the statement of objections in detail and respond accordingly".