“Apple Computers, the maker of iPod digital music players, has dropped a joint $3.8 billion investment plan in flash chip production of Samsung Electronics, a South Korean newspaper said on Saturday,” Reuters reports. ‘Apple had proposed about 4 trillion won joint investment with Samsung Electronics in the production lines of NAND flash chips used for its MP3 players,’ a senior Samsung official was quoted by the Korea Economic Daily as saying.”

“‘But as the anti-Samsung sentiment has recently deepened among some political and civic groups, Apple ended the talks, complaining about the sentiment,’ the unnamed official was cited as saying. Apple was currently in talks with another memory chip maker for joint flash chip output in the United States, he added,” Reuters reports.

Full article here.

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In their quixotic quest to prop up homegrown makers of MP3 players that nobody wants, Korea shoots its own Samsung right between the eyes. Brilliant.

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