Korea's Samsung, now the third-largest supplier of cell phones, will introduce its i500 SmartPhone in the U.S. market during the fourth quarter. The small and slim i500 flip-open phone is also a full-featured Palm computer.

Nearly 20% of all new vehicles worldwide will contain embedded Bluetooth hardware by 2007. While the first wave of Bluetooth devices in cars will center on telephony, Allied Business Intelligence says later applications will include remote vehicle diagnostics, telematics, advanced safety systems, vehicle-to-vehicle communications and remote audio and video downloads.

Purchases of power transmission and motion control products from manufacturers through August declined 4.3% when compared with eight-month bookings in 2001. Power Transmission Distributors Association also says year-to-date orders through distributors declined 3.2% compared to 2001.

FedEx has announced a six-year, $1.8 billion plan intended to nearly double the daily package volume capacity of its ground delivery unit to 4.8 million packages from 2.5 million. As part of the plan, the Memphis-based firm will add 10 new and 23 expanded central distribution hubs and will relocate or expand more than 300 existing facilities.

Because business-software buying is down dramatically, "the market for purchasing software is still very challenging," says analyst Brendan Barnicle of Pacific Growth Equities. "What we're seeing is several quarters of declining revenue and cost-cutting because demand for supply-chain software, in particular, is soft." Even Oracle now admits to facing "stubbornly weak demand" for code products that automate business activities from accounting to customer service.

CS First Boston analysts cut their 2003 purchasing forecasts for fiber optics because estimates of capital spending in 2003 on wireline equipment now are 15-20% less than in 2002. Fiber optics go into the telecommunications market, which crumbled as carriers struggled with tumbling profits and a glut of network capacity, a reversal from the boom days of 2000 when phone companies could not expand quickly enough.

Banc of America Securities semiconductor analyst Mark FitzGerald expects that production equipment orders will keep falling for the next six months as chipmakers reduce their capital investments. Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch analysts also anticipate weak orders for chip equipment companies through the fourth quarter-and maybe through the first half of 2003, as well.