A record $4.7 billion quarterly operating profit was posted by Samsung Electronics Co that was driven booming smartphone sales. The company will be spending $22 billion this year to boost production of chips and flat screens to pull further ahead of smaller rivals.

The world’s top technology firm by revenue, Samsung, is locked in breakneck competition with Apple Inc in the red-hot smartphone market.

Research firm Strategy Analytics put Samsung sales at 36.5 million smartphones in October-December, with 3rd-ranked Nokia on 19.6 million.

“The battle of the two big smartphone powers, Apple versus Samsung, will go on,” said Baik Jae-yer, fund manager at Korea Investment Management. “The smartphone market will expand this year to more mid-and low-end models that are affordable to the wider public,” Baik said. “Rather than focus on market share, I’d point out the strong contribution of Samsung’s handset business to earnings growth and margins.”

The optimism of investors for Google Inc is running high and the stage is all set for another jump in shares of the Internet search company.

Options investors appear to be betting on more gains for the stock that hit a record high of $670.25 on January 4. Traders have been buying Google calls that grant the right to buy the stock at a fixed price up to a specific date at a greater pace than its puts or stock selling rights at a preset price.

“The options market is positioned bullishly ahead of results. Call options have been bought over the past few weeks,” Credit Suisse equity derivatives strategist Terry Wilson said.

“Google is a stock that is surrounded by a lot of optimism from Wall Street analysts and option speculators. This sets a high bar on the earnings report, and any disappointing news could leave the stock vulnerable to the downside,” said Bell, of Schaeffer’s.

Suzuki Motors has filed for international arbitration in a dispute with Volkswagen AG.

This was after the German automaker refused to sell back its 20 percent stake in the Japanese company.

Suzuki, a specialist in building small cars profitably for emerging markets, said on Thursday it initiated arbitration procedures with the International Chamber of Commerce International Court of Arbitration in London.

Suzuki, which has accused its German partner of withholding hybrid technology it promised to share, on Nov. 18 declared its two-year alliance with the German company over and demanded a return of the 19.9 percent stake VW bought for about 1.7 billion euros ($2.27 billion) in January 2009.

Suzuki said it was prepared to go through an arbitration process that could take up to two years to resolve the dispute after the German company reiterated its refusal that same day.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

A senior executive at market leader Bharti Airtel Ltd recently said that competition in the mobile market of India would remain intense, with the overcrowded 15-player sector in need of consolidation to lift margins.

Sanjay Kapoor, Bharti’s chief executive for India and South Asia, also said the company experienced an increase in the uptake of third-generation (3G) services it launched earlier this year, although mass adoption of premium services would take time.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

India is the world’s second-biggest mobile market after China and one of the fastest-growing markets. But the market is ferociously competitive, with a sharp fall in voice service prices in the second half of 2009 squeezing profitability over the last two years.

Call prices have since stabilised — Bharti and some rivals, including Reliance Communications Ltd and Vodafone Group Plc’s local unit, raised prices by about a fifth earlier this year.

Kapoor said competition was “fairly intense” when it came to acquisition of new subscribers and that many of Bharti’s rivals were sacrificing profits in the race.

“The Indian market is the still the most competitive market in the world. Otherwise, why would the bulk of the operators work at prices that are much below their costs?” he said on the sidelines of a conference in Hong Kong. “How many players are there whose prices cover their entire costs? Very few. (The rest) are virtually losing money to participate in the market.”

“Consolidation is inevitable,” Kapoor said. “The number of players competing in the market has to drastically go down … so that will happen. Whether it happens through acquisitions or through closures and walkouts, or it happens in any other form is a matter of debate,” he said.

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Thirty one Chinese and joint venture operators have been granted a first group of Internet map service licenses by China after authorities tightened market access amid concerns that the booming market for the service might undermine state security.

The operators included a national-level map publisher, several map service providers affiliated with major Chinese portals such as Baidu.com and Sina.com and obtained a class-A license from the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

It is not clear whether Google which recently renewed its license to operate in China after a protracted spat with the government over privacy laws has obtained the license to operate maps. Operators who obtain a class-A license will be allowed to conduct services including map searching and locations, marking geographic information, downloading and copying of maps, and map transmissions and quotations.

Class-B licenses will restrict companies to offer services of map searching and locations, as well as geographic information marking, state run Xinhua news agency reported. All Internet map services providers will have to apply for a license, while those operating without the license will be prosecuted in China in accordance with the law, an official from the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping said.

The official did not elaborate on the deadline for license applications. Foreign-owned or foreign-invested Internet firms can apply for the license in the capacity of joint ventures or through cooperation with Chinese businesses, he said.

A joint venture between Nokia and New Alliance, Nokia Alliance Internet Services Company Limited, which is part of the Shanghai Alliance Investment Limited, is among the businesses that have obtained a class-A license.