BUSINESS

Sony followed the tactics employed in early 2011 by Hewlett-Packard and Research in Motion, cut the price of a slow-moving product.

The labor dispute at Qantas benefited Virgin Australia which logged a 3.5 per cent increase in domestic passenger traffic in November.

Australian airlines are scrambling to reconfigure their international service flights to stay afloat and recoup losses incurred on steep price cuts to fend off lingering threats of competition, reports said.

Banking reforms introduced in late 2010 by the federal government appear to have made little difference as giant banks continue to hold sway in the mortgage market, capturing much of the share in the home loan market pie.

Australian chemical giant Orica (ASX: ORI) reopened on Tuesday its ammonia plant in Kooragang Island. The facility was shuttered in August after hexavalent chromium spilled on Hunter River and to more than 70 homes in Stockton.

2011 has already come to an end and recent report shows that Google’s Android emerged as the dominant OS for Smartphones in U.S. for the year 2011.

There is no doubt that tablets have played a dominant role in the market today and this is evident in the number of tablets released last 2011.

The National Stock Exchange of Australia (NSX) added 29 companies to its listing on Tuesday, doubling the total number of members to 62.

The original documents which spawned the birth of one of the most successful companies in the world were sold through an auction for 10 times more than its estimated value.

There were many additions to the gadget world in 2011. Most of the gadgets the previous year showed that the digital industry has improved greatly from mobility and transportation to entertainment and communication.

Telstra admitted another data breach over the weekend when customers' information were again displayed online through a spreadsheet inadvertently deployed by one of the giant telco's consultants.

Australian fishermen are blaming the ongoing dredging at Queensland Harbour for the fish kills that have affected their livelihood. The dredging of 46 million tons of sediments at Gladstone Harbour is part of the $30-billion project to expand the port to accommodate more coal-seam gas export to Asia.

China's manufacturing sector posted moderate growth in December, breaching by hairline the index's point of contraction, according to new official purchasing managers' index issued by the country's National Bureau of Statistics.

Analysts and investors are divided on how the Australian stock market would fare in 2012. The division is because while dealers forecast that shares would rise 17 per cent in 2011, the year ended with the benchmark Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) 200 down 14.5 per cent at 4,140.4 at the last trading day of the year.

OZ Minerals, in a filing with the Australian Stock Exchange, estimated the value of its copper concentrate lost in the derailment of a train in the Northern Territory last week, at $7 million to $8 million.

The ongoing financial distress happening in Europe prompted business leaders on Thursday to call on the federal government to introduce more supportive measures that would safeguard the health of the Australian economy.

Bank of Melbourne has reduced fixed rates, only a week after offering to price match any other major.

Spending less is more this Christmas festive season - especially if you are a woman, or Gen Y.

Domain.com.au's recent blog entry highlighted a trend amongst an industry and governments that have run out of ideas on how to make housing more affordable.

According to a recent report from a risk adviser to Banco Santander SA (SAN) and five other lenders, Spanish banks are currently holding 30 billion Euros worth of property that they can’t sell.

How much further will the slide in Chinese house prices go? National house prices had their third monthly decline in November, a fall of 0.3%, according to the China Real Estate Index System (CREIS).

Millions of smartphones and tablet computers made their way to new owners this holiday season, with both Apple and Google getting considerable piece of the action, latest reports said.

As reports indicated that U.S.-based shoppers have splurged tens of billions in online shopping during the busiest weeks of the holiday season, Amazon reported on Thursday that its best-selling products, both the original Kindle and Kindle Fire, sold more than one million apiece.

The U.S. Army is developing a helicopter drone equipped with a 1.8 gigapixel camera that can provide high resolution ground images or video from an altitude of 20,000 feet and over an area of 65 square miles.

OZ Minerals has downplayed the dangers posed by chemicals that spilled earlier this week when one of its freight trains was derailed due to heavy flooding that had hit the Northern Territory.

Mining has been the Australian economy's backbone for some time but its benefits were essentially eclipsed by rising living costs, forcing many consumers to rationalize their spending habits.

Boeing forecasts more consolidation in the global aviation industry in the next 10 years. Boeing Chief Executive Officer Jim McNerney said that restructuring of air carrier companies would be one of the biggest challenges that airlines would face in the coming decade.

Since the 2008 global financial crisis, Australians have been saving at a record-high rate, to the detriment of the country's retail industry. For the September quarter, Aussies' ratio of net household savings to disposable income went up to 10 per cent from 9 per cent in the June quarter.

Moly Mines (ASX: MOL) is again postponing its $700-million molybdenum and copper mine projects at Spinifex Ridge in Western Australia. The company explained the move to falling prices of molybdenum, a key ingredient in the manufacture of steel, and the strong Australian currency.