Danny Puff

By Poornima Gupta and Noel Randewich

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc's shares fell below $400 on Wednesday for the first time since December 2011 after a U.S. chip supplier's disappointing revenue forecast fanned fears about weakening demand for the iPhone and iPad as competition intensifies.

The surprise warning by Cirrus Logic Inc knocked down shares of key component suppliers like South Korea's LG Display Co Ltd and Japan's Toshiba Corp on Thursday in Asia, a region that supplies the lion's share of chips, cases and displays for the Cupertino, California-based company.

The Cirrus Logic revenue forecast fueled fears that demand for the iPhone - which makes up more than half of Apple's revenue - is slowing more quickly than expected as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and other rivals that use Google Inc's Android software flood the market with cheaper phones. It has also thrown the spotlight on Apple's quarterly earnings announcement due out next week, with some analysts saying the results could miss already reduced estimates.

"This is a tough environment. Apple is in transition between products," said Michael Yoshikami, a portfolio manager at California-based Destination Wealth Management, which owns about 50,000 Apple shares. Cirrus's warning "makes it more likely Apple's not going to surprise on upside."

Cirrus Logic, which makes analog and audio chips for the iPhone and iPad, warned of a reduced product forecast from one customer - which it did not name. But 90 percent or more of its business comes from Apple, making it a key indicator of demand for iPhones and iPads.

That sent shares of Apple below $400 briefly before they ended 5.5 percent lower at $402.80. The drop wiped off more than $22 billion of market value.

In Asia, shares of flat-screen supplier LG Display shed 4 percent and mobile chip maker SK Hynix slipped 3 percent. NAND flash maker Toshiba and component maker Murata Manufacturing Co Ltd both fell 2 percent.

LG Display will report earnings on Monday and SK Hynix next Wednesday.

BEARISH ON SUPPLIERS

"We've been bearish about shares of Apple's suppliers for quite some time," said Andrew Wang, Chief Investment Officer of Manulife Asset Management in Taiwan.

"It is now very clear that Apple's market share has reached the peak, given that Samsung has taken a big chunk of it and HTC has had a few nice models since last year," he said, referring to Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp.

Cirrus's weak forecast followed a 19 percent decline in first-quarter sales at Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, Apple's main contract manufacturer. The Taiwanese company makes an estimated 60 to 70 percent of its revenue assembling iPhones and iPads, and carrying out other work for Apple.

Hon Hai shares were down 1.2 percent on Thursday.

Since its September 2012 peak, Apple has lost 40 percent of its market value or more than $280 billion - slightly more than Google Inc's entire capitalization - battered by worries about the effect on Apple's industry-leading margins if it is forced to do faster updates of its products to keep up with rivals.

Some say Apple will not be able to sustain its high gross margins as competition in the tablet and smartphone markets leads to lower prices. Shorter product cycles limit Apple's ability to bring down component costs, Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi said in a note to clients.

"It's a reminder of weakening demand and the challenges around product transitions," Shannon Cross, of Cross Research, said. "There's not a lot of conviction about what the second half is going to look like."

NERVES

Investors are growing increasingly nervous about Apple's growth prospects.

Shares of other chipmakers and Apple suppliers - including Qualcomm Inc, Avago Technologies Ltd, Broadcom Corp and Skyworks Solutions Inc - fell between 2 and 6 percent on Wednesday.

Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope said in a note on Wednesday that Apple's momentum could weaken further before it launches new products later this year.

Apple, which relies heavily on new products to drive its revenue growth, has not had a launch since last October when it unveiled its 7.9-inch iPad mini and an updated full-size iPad.

In the past week, analysts had reduced their estimates for Apple's March quarter revenue on average to $42.53 billion from $42.68 billion.

Apple is expected to report a 9 percent increase in quarterly revenue on April 23, with net profit expected to decline 17 percent to $9.59 billion, or $10.08 a share, for its fiscal second quarter, according to average analysts' estimates.

Bernstein Research's Sacconaghi, who lowered his quarterly revenue estimate to $41.1 billion from $42.4 billion, said he expects mixed results with Apple's revenue coming in below consensus and earnings per share largely as expected.

(Additional reporting by Edwin Chan, Faith Hung in TAIPEI, Miyoung Kim in SEOUL, Ayai Tomisawa in TOKYO; Additonal reporting and writing by Mari Saito; Editing by Maureen Bavdek, Andrew Hay, Leslie Adler, Cynthia Osterman and Chris Gallagher)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) The princess-rescuing adventurer Link is coming to the Nintendo 3DS.

The Japanese gaming giant announced plans Wednesday to bring a new "The Legend of Zelda" installment to its hand-held gaming system.

Nintendo of America Inc. president Reggie Fils-Aime said Tuesday that the new "Zelda" game would be set in the world of "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past," which was originally released in 1992 for the Super Nintendo console.

The as-yet-untitled 3D follow-up will be released later this year and feature a new story and levels, as well as gameplay that allows sword-wielding Link to transform into a 2D drawing.

"It fully utilizes the Nintendo 3DS," said Fils-Aime. "It gives the game a sense of depth, and this puzzle-solving mechanic of being able to launch into a wall and navigate through walls to get into places that Link wouldn't normally be able to get into is exceptionally fresh."

It will mark the first all-new game starring Link for the glasses-free 3D hand-held device.

Other games announced coming to the 3DS include new "Yoshi's Island" and "Mario Party" titles.

Fils-Aime said more than 20 million 3DS games have been sold since the device debuted in 2011.

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang

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Online:

http://www.nintendo.com/3ds

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NEW DELHI (AP) Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt was granted more time to work before going to prison for a 1993 weapons conviction linked to a deadly terror attack, though he likely won't be able to finish his four pending films.

The Supreme Court's order Wednesday gives him four more weeks beyond the original deadline, which was Thursday. Dutt had appealed to the court that he needed six months to complete his pending film commitments, which film industry experts have said are worth at least $20 million.

Last month the top court sentenced Dutt to five years in prison for illegal possession of weapons supplied by Muslim mafia bosses linked to the terror attack that killed 257 people in Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment hub.

The 53-year-old actor originally had been sentenced to serve six years in prison on the charge of possessing an automatic rifle and a pistol that were supplied to him by men subsequently convicted in the bombings.

Dutt served 18 months in jail before he was released on bail in 2007 pending an appeal. The Supreme Court reduced his prison sentence to five years.

The actor's case is part of a sprawling Mumbai bombings trial that has lasted 18 years. Dutt maintains he knew nothing about the bombing plot and that he asked for the guns to protect his family his mother was Muslim and his father Hindu after receiving threats during sectarian riots in Mumbai.

The 1993 bombings were seen at the time as the world's worst terrorist attack, with 13 bombs exploding over a two-hour period across Mumbai. Powerful explosives were packed into cars and scooters parked near India's main Bombay Stock Exchange and other sites in the city. In addition to the 257 dead, more than 720 people were injured in the attack.

The bombings were believed to have been acts of revenge for the demolition of a 16th century mosque by Hindu nationalists in northern India in 1992. After the demolition, religious riots erupted, leaving more than 800 people dead, most of them Muslims.

Despite the long-drawn case and his stint in jail, Dutt's Bollywood career flourished over the past two decades. He gained enormous popularity for a series of Hindi films in which he played a reformed thug who follows the teachings of nonviolence advocate and Indian independence hero Mohandas Gandhi.

In addition to the four projects underway, two other movies that Dutt recently completed filming were being readied for release.

Film industry insiders said the time would not be enough for Dutt to complete all his projects.

"One month is too short for the volume of work that Sanjay has on his plate. We are hoping to wrap up as much as we can," said Rensil D'Silva, producer of one of Dutt's films.

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NEW YORK (AP) The Tribeca Film Festival was born out of the 9/11 terror attacks and celebs attending an annual Vanity Fair gala in New York City Tuesday to kick off this year's event were mindful of the shadow cast by Monday's explosions at the Boston Marathon.

Police and security guards were visible at the festival Tuesday night, where there was an outdoor metal detector for arriving guests.

Whoopi Goldberg said she understood if some people were apprehensive about going out in crowded, public areas.

"I say that's alright. We're out for you," she said. "Stay until you feel better. But we're out here and we got your back."

The actress and TV personality is a juror at the festival this year and directed a documentary that is holding its world premiere called "I Got Somethin' to Tell You" about comedian Moms Mabley.

Aida Turturro, best known for her role on TV's "The Sopranos," said it's important to live your life and not be scared.

"You never know. I mean you can die by crossing the street or you can get hit by a car. ... I think the best thing is to continue life because if you don't they're winning," she said. "If they keep you from living your life than they've won. They've taken your life away from you right there."

Meantime, Jane Rosenthal, the co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival, said essentially the event must go on.

"Our hearts are with everyone in Boston," she said. "We can't let terror or fear deter us from doing anything so we're going on with our film festival and as the President and the Mayor says we're gonna keep on doing what we do."

The bombings in Boston, carried out with kitchen pressure cookers packed with explosives and lethal shrapnel, killed three people and injured more than 170. No suspects have been identified and no arrests have been made.

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who attended the gala, said he hoped increased police presence would calm people's fears.

"We believe that by increasing uniform presence we've sort of raised the comfort level. People understandably feel a little anxious after a terrible event ... in Boston, so we do that to again make people feel a little more comfortable and let them know we're on the job."

The Tribeca Film Festival runs April 17 through April 28.

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Online:

http://www.tribecafilm.com/festival

Alicia Rancilio covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow her online at http://www.twitter.com/aliciar

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(Reuters) - George Beverly Shea, a gospel singer with a deep baritone voice who teamed with Billy Graham for more than 60 years, died on Tuesday after a brief illness, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said. He was 104.

Shea, was born in Ontario, Canada, where his father was a Wesleyan Methodist minister. He first sang for Graham in 1943 and joined the first of Graham's city-wide crusades in 1947, the association said.

"Bev was one of the most humble, gracious men I have ever known and one of my closest friends," Billy Graham said in a statement announcing his death. "I loved him as a brother."

Shea recorded more than 70 albums and received 10 Grammy Award nominations, winning one in 1965. He also received a lifetime achievement award from the organization in 2011.

He was a member of the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame and the Religious Broadcasting Hall of Fame and was inducted into the inaugural class of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists' "Hall of Faith" in 2008.

Shea, who lived in North Carolina, is survived by his wife, Karlene, and his children from his first marriage, Ronald and Elaine. His first wife, Erma, died in 1976.

(Reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Paul Simao)

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NEW YORK (AP) Fox has pulled from websites a recent episode of "Family Guy" that depicts mass deaths at the Boston Marathon, and has no immediate plans to air it again.

Fox spokeswoman Gaude Paez said Tuesday the episode has been removed from Fox.com and Hulu.com.

In the episode, which originally aired March 17, protagonist Peter Griffin is asked by sports announcer Bob Costas about his performance at the marathon. A flashback shows Peter mowing down runners with his car.

"I'll tell ya, Bob, I just got in my car and drove it," Griffin says. "And when there was a guy in my way, I killed him."

Later, Peter befriends a terrorist who, unbeknownst to him, is plotting to blow up a bridge. When Peter dials a cellphone the friend has given him, explosions and screams are heard. On some websites, an edited clip has been circulating that fuses the two scenes, making it seem incorrectly as if the explosion was at the marathon. Some commenters have implied that the show "predicted" the bombings.

"Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane took to Twitter on Tuesday to vent anger over the edited clip and offer condolences to victims of Monday's bombings at the marathon.

"The edited 'Family Guy' clip currently circulating is abhorrent," MacFarlane tweeted. "The event was a crime and a tragedy, and my thoughts are with the victims."

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LONDON (Reuters) - French chef Alain Ducasse was given a lifetime achievement award on Monday by The World's 50 Best Restaurants Awards for "pushing the boundaries of excellence in cooking" over a 30-year career.

Ducasse, 56, is one of the world's most decorated chefs who won his first three Michelin star award at the age of 33 with Le Louis XV restaurant in the H tel de Paris in Monaco.

He was the first chef to win three Michelin stars in three different cities and his empire now includes more than 20 restaurants around the world, a culinary publishing house, and a culinary institute.

"This is an acknowledgement from the restaurant world itself of chef Ducasse's achievements and positive influence," said William Drew, Editor of Restaurant magazine, organizers of The World's 50 Best Restaurants.

He added in a statement that the award acknowledged not only Ducasse's reputation for innovative French cuisine but also his influence over a generation of chefs and restaurateurs.

The lifetime achievement award is voted for by a 936-strong international voting panel who comprise the World's 50 Best Restaurants Academy.

Past winners include Americans Thomas Keller and Alice Waters, Spain's Juan Mari Arzak, French chefs Jo l Robuchon, Paul Bocuse, Albert and Michel Roux, Italy's Gualtiero Marchesi, and Austrian Eckart Witzigmann.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

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LONDON (Reuters) - Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne apologized on Tuesday for bingeing on drink and drugs over the last year and a half but said he was not getting a divorce from his wife Sharon.

The British singer's comments on his Facebook page were a response to media speculation about the state of his marriage, with reports that he and Sharon had split up after more than 30 years and were living separately.

"Just to set the record straight, Sharon and I are not divorcing," Osbourne, 64, said on his Facebook page. "I'm just trying to be a better person."

He said he had been drinking and taking drugs for the last year and a half and had been in a "very dark place", but has now been sober for 44 days.

Osbourne, who made his name as lead singer of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, has frequently spoken over the years about his battle with drugs and alcohol and has spent time in rehabilitation clinics.

"I would like to apologize to Sharon, my family, my friends and my band mates for my insane behavior during this period ... and my fans," wrote Osbourne.

The Osbournes have become one of Hollywood's most famous couples since starring in a reality television show, "The Osbournes", alongside two of their children, Jack and Kelly, which gave an insight into their family life in Beverly Hills.

Son Jack also dismissed the rumors of a family bust-up.

"Last time I check (sic) a lot of British news papers weren't amazing sources of accurate information. Moving on..." he wrote on Twitter.

Sharon Osbourne, 60, was a regular panelist on U.S. reality TV talent show "America's Got Talent" and played out a battle with colon cancer in public.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

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TORONTO (Reuters) - No abnormally high return rates have been seen for the new Z10 touchscreen device that underpins BlackBerry's attempt to reinvent itself, and demand appears to be positive in Asia, Jefferies & Co analyst Peter Misek said in a report on Tuesday.

BlackBerry has already said it will ask regulators to investigate a report from Boston-based Detwiler Fenton of high return rates for the new device, which is the first BlackBerry to use the new BlackBerry 10 operating system.

Misek, a long-time bear on BlackBerry, turned bullish on the stock late last year.

He said BlackBerry, which changed its name from Research In Motion when it launched the Z10, was increasing its build plan for new devices powered by the Blackberry 10 operating system. He expects BlackBerry to launch two or three additional models before the end of the year.

That would be in addition to the already-announced Q10, which launches in some countries later this month and which uses the mini keyboard that has long been one of BlackBerry's biggest selling points.

"Our checks indicate that builds for Q10 have kicked into high gear and led overall BB10 builds to increase from 2 million a month to 2 million plus," he wrote. "Anecdotal Asia demand checks were positive and U.S. checks indicate that return rates are not abnormally high."

BlackBerry's stock was up 2.1 percent at $14 in premarket trading. The volatile shares have more than doubled in value from last year's low of $6.22.

(Reporting by Janet Guttsman; editing by John Wallace)

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By Jeremy Wagstaff and Sinead Carew

SINGAPORE/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The touted arrival this year of wearable gadgets such as computer displays strapped to wrists and in wrap-around glasses is just a step towards a bigger revolution in screens - those that can be bent, folded and rolled up.

Once freed from today's relatively heavy, breakable and fixed glass displays, tomorrow's devices may look very different, with screens that can be rolled out, attached to uneven surfaces, or even stretched.

But there's still some way to go.

"It becomes a product designer's paradise - once the technology is sorted out," says Jonathan Melnick, who analyses display technology for Lux Research.

There is no shortage of prototypes - South Korea's Samsung Electronics this year showed off a display screen that extends from the side of a device - but obstacles remain: overcoming technical issues, figuring out how to mass produce parts cheaply, and coming up with devices compelling enough for gadget buyers.

Screen technology - and the global small display market is seen more than doubling to around $72 billion by 2016, according to DisplaySearch - is still dominated by liquid crystal displays (LCDs), which require a backlight and sit between two sheets of glass, making the screen a major contributor to the weight of a device, from laptops to tablets.

"Most of the weight in a tablet is the glass structure in the display and the support structure around it to prevent it from cracking," said Kevin Morishige, a former engineer at Cisco Systems Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co and Palm.

LCD's dominance is already under threat from lighter Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) that don't need backlighting, are brighter, offer a wider viewing angle and better color contrast - and can be printed onto a few layers.

FROM GORILLA TO WILLOW

Glass, however, is getting lighter and more flexible.

Corning Inc, whose toughened Gorilla glass became the screen of choice for many smartphones, will provide phones with curved glass edges as soon as this year. It is also now promoting Willow Glass, which can be as thin as a sheet of paper and is flexible enough to be wrapped around a device or structure. Initially, Willow will be used as a coating for products like solar panels, but it is eventually expected to create curved products.

A key selling point for Willow is more efficient production which involves so-called roll-to-roll manufacturing, like a printing press, rather than today's more costly batch manufacturing. But the commercialization of Willow as a flexible product is some way off, James Clappin, who heads Corning's glass technology group, told Reuters.

And glass has its limits.

"You can bend it, but you can't keep flexing it," said Adrian Burden, a UK consultant who has worked on several start-ups related to display technology, and holds patents in the field. This means that while glass is likely to continue to play a leading role in devices with curved displays, screens that users can bend, fold and roll will likely be plastic.

But plastic is not as robust as glass. "As soon as you introduce plastic substrates you have all kinds of issues with sensitivity to the environment," says Burden.

BARRIER FILMS, NANOPARTICLES

So while OLED and plastic would seem to be companion technologies they create an extra problem when laid together: they need so-called barrier films to prevent the various layers from leaking oxygen and moisture.

"There are barrier films in all sorts of products, for example food packaging, but the challenge is that OLED is one of the most sensitive materials we follow, and so creates huge challenges," says Lux Research's Melnick.

Singapore-based Tera-Barrier Films, for example, has developed a way to plug leaks in the layers using nanoparticles. Director Senthil Ramadas says that after years of delays the company last month started production in Japan and aims for mass production by end-2014. "You have several challenges in the value chain," he said. "All these things need to be established, and only now is it coming out."

And there's another problem: all the materials in a bendable display need to be bendable, too - including the transparent conductors that drive current through the display. Several technologies are vying to replace the brittle and expensive Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) used in most fixed displays, including nanowires, carbon nanotubes, graphene and conductive mesh.

Some of these technologies are close to production. Another Singapore-based firm, Cima Nanotech, for example, rolls a coating of silver-based conductive ink on a sheet which then self-aligns into a web of strands a few microns across that forms the conductive layer.

It's unlikely such shifts in the underlying technologies will yield products immediately. For one thing, "prototypes can be made," says Melnick, "but that's a long way from mass production as many of the processes and material in these devices face big yield and scaling issues."

ON A ROLL

This is gradually changing, some in the industry say, as production shifts from making parts in batches of sheets to the more efficient roll-to-roll process. "Batch is more expensive and slower than roll-to-roll, which needs new equipment and design - and takes time," said Ramadas at Tera-Barrier.

All this requires money, and manufacturers have to be convinced to invest in the new equipment.

Even after the success of Gorilla Glass, popularized by the Apple Inc iPhone, Corning is having to work hard to prepare customers for Willow displays. Clappin said customers want thinner devices and easier to produce glass, but Willow requires a completely different manufacturing set-up.

"When we talk about commercializing Willow a big part of our development activity is enabling the ecosystem to handle what is essentially a brand new material," Clappin added. "Nobody's accustomed to working with glass that bends and moves. It's a new material. The ecosystem needs to be trained to handle it."

He sees demand, particularly from video gamers, for Willow-based curved screens, but remains less convinced about rollable or foldable screens. "Conformable is in the near future. As far as flexible, bendable, fold-upable goes, I see that further out and I'm not even sure that's a viable product," he said.

That in turn requires figuring out what end users might want. "For us and for our clients it's not so much about the flexible display technology," says Brandon Edwards, Shanghai-based executive creative director of frog, a design company owned by India's Aricent. "That's a huge part of it, but what are the practical ways we can bring products to market and how fast, and what's the right cadence? What are consumers going to be responsive to?"

WHAT DO PEOPLE WANT?

For companies with deep pockets, like Samsung, this can mean building prototypes such as those displayed at international technology shows. But that doesn't guarantee success in selling products. Sony Corp, for example, promoted flexible OLED displays back in 2007. "Six years later they've not come up with anything," says Zhang Jie, senior scientist at Singapore's Institute of Metals Research and Engineering. "If Samsung's going to really drive this the application really needs to drive people and make them want it."

This slows down the process. In late 2011, Samsung told analysts it planned to introduce flexible displays into handsets "some time in 2012, hopefully the earlier part than later", but a year later the company said the technology was still "under development." In an investment note last month Jefferies said that while Samsung may introduce "unbreakable" screens this year, it didn't expect to see flexible displays in Samsung devices until 2014-15.

Ultimately, teasing out the technical problems may be only half the battle.

"This is the eternal question of the specialty materials industry," says Lutz Grubel, Japan-based head of marketing for German glass maker Schott's Xensation Cover 3D glass. "You have something, a material, and you're looking for an application. That's the game."

(Additional reporting by Miyoung Kim in SEOUL; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

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