Sometimes it is the little things that really count. Take the chips put out by Toshiba for MP3 players as one such example….

Earnings at Japanese firm Toshiba have jumped thanks to demand for the memory chips used in digital music players, cameras and mobile phones.

The electronics group said net profits surged 70% to 78.2bn yen ($684.4m; £378.9m) for the year to March 2006.

But, it warned growth would slow in the year ahead as more companies muscle in on its key flash memory card market.

Demand for the flash memory chip technology - which is used in items like iPods - has been strong.

The market for the NAND-type chips grew 65% to $10.9bn (£6bn) in 2005, according to industry estimates.

Toshiba is the world’s second largest producer of these chips, with a 19% share of the market compared with South Korea’s giant Samsung which has almost half of the market. Source: BBC News

[tags]toshiba,bbc news,japanese,flash memory card[/tags]