Company: Samsung

The chief executives of Apple and Samsung Electronics are used to running the show at their global tech empires, but they will be in for a different experience when they arrive at a San Francisco federal courthouse on Monday.

Samsung Electronics has received some 9 million pre-orders for its third-generation Galaxy S smartphone from more than 100 global carriers, the Korea Economic Daily reported on Friday.

Shares in Samsung Electronics slumped more than 6 percent on Wednesday, wiping $10 billion off the electronics giant's market value, on a report that Apple placed huge chip orders with troubled Japanese chip rival Elpida.

A U.S. appeals court ruled on Monday that Apple could press its bid for an immediate injunction to block the sale of some tablet computers made by Samsung Electronics based on allegations of infringement of one patent.

AT&T dominated the social conversation at the International CTIA Wireless 2012 conference in New Orleans, according to the just-released rankings of the exclusive CNBC Social Conversation Index: Mobile Edition.

The driving force behind many of the relationships and rivalries that will play out in New Orleans?  Long-Term Evolution, the 4G wireless standard. 2012 is shaping up to be the year when the carriers and smartphone makers put their best LTE efforts into the arena to triumph or fall.

Samsung Electronics unveiled a new top-of-the-range Galaxy smartphone in London on Thursday, updating the most direct rival to Apple's iPhone with a larger touch screen and more powerful processor.

In the popular narrative of Nokia's eclipse, it is Apple's iPhone that steals the light, but the company is also losing its shine in the basic phone market, which had been a reliable generator of profits and carried the promise of years of strong growth in emerging markets. No more.

Samsung Electronics posted a record $5.2 billion quarterly profit as it shifted over 20,000 Galaxy smartphones an hour in January-March, outselling Apple's iPhone in a duel for the lucrative high end of the mobile industry.

LG Electronics will steal a march on its rivals by bringing forward the launch of a 55-inch flat TV using next-generation technology, raising the stakes in a cut-throat battle for the living room between Asia's top tech powerhouses.

Toshiba is no longer bidding for bankrupt Japanese chip maker Elpida Memory, sources close to the talks said, leaving three foreign firms including SK hynix and Micron Technology in the race to take over the company.

China's ZTE, which launched its first basic mobile phone in Africa little more than 10 years ago, said it could be shipping 100 million smartphones a year by 2015, as it looks up-market to reverse a decline in its handset margins.

Korea's Samsung Electronics ended Nokia's 14-year leadership of the global cellphone market in the first quarter of the year, outselling the struggling Finnish handset maker for the first time ever, according to a Reuters poll of analysts.

Samsung Electronics, the world's top technology firm by revenue, estimated operating profit nearly doubled in January-March from a year ago, boosted by sales of its flagship Galaxy smartphones and its Note mini-tablet and phone. 

If your digital toys cost as much as a car, there’s no reason you shouldn’t have technology that pushes the envelope and is filled with features. Here are some of the elite electronics that let you play at the cutting edge.