Many electronic makers have come to the market with aggressive cost-cutting plans and incentive to gain back consumer dollars, as the global outlook for the market shows signs of improvement.

• Although Playstation maker Sony posted fourth-quarter losses, the company’s latest results beat analysts’ forecasts by a wide margin, reports Hiroko Tabuchi for The New York Times.

• Samsung Electronic is still the ruler; the performance of other companies couldn’t match the world’s largest maker of televisions. Samsung said profits in the most recent quarter had tripled to a record $3.14 billion as it capitalized on investment in new panel technologies and marketing. It also got a boost from a weak won, which gave it the ability to undercut Sony’s prices.

• Panasonic notched its first profit in a year as sales of DVD recorders and household appliances showed some recovery. It’s now betting on batteries for hybrid and electric cars by merging with Sanyo.

Who can grab the most market share by cost cutting and appealing to consumers?

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• PowerShares FTSE RAFI Japan (NYSEArca: PJO): down 1.1%; holds 2.8% of Sony

• SPDR S&P International Cons Disc Sector (NYSEArca:IPD): up 55% year-to-date; holds 2.2% Sony

• iShares S&P Global Technology (NYSEArca: IXN): up 38.2% year-to-date; holds 4.2% Samsung

• iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NYSEArca: EEM): up 64.5% year-to-date; holds4.3% Samsung

• iShares MSCI South Korea (NYSEArca: EWY): up 63.4% year-to-date; Samsung, 19.1%

• WisdomTree International Technology Sector Fund (NYSEArca: DBT): up 18.9% year-to-date; Panasonic is 6.2%

Although the numbers within the technology sector are still below pre-crisis levels, the overall production of cell phones, computers and semiconductors has picked up. Eric Pfanner for The New York Times reports that the bounce-back in data has been seen in several countries, with the Asian region recovering the most quickly as far as technology is concerned.

In Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, production of information technology products at its highest was down 40% from a year earlier. Since May, output was down only 3% year-on-year.

• iShares S&P Global Technology (IXN): up 31.1% year-to-date

• SPDR S&P International Technology Sector (IPK): up 26.5% year-to-date

For more stories about technology, visit our technology category.

The latest numbers show that technology industry leaders Intel Corp. (INTC) and Micorsoft Corp. (MSFT) and other players could lose out on up to $170 billion in sales next year as the credit crunch catches up to them.

Ian King and Katie Hoffmann for Bloomberg report that corporate spending on computers, software and communications equipment will either change little or fall up to 5% for 2009. It would be the first decline in the $3.41 trillion market since 2001, after the dot-com bubble.

The lending freeze has many clients spooked and consumer growth has slowed, but corporate budgets have stayed steady, until now. More date will follow tomorrow when Intel reports two-weeks worth of third quarter reports. Intel’s chips run more than 3 quarters of the world’s personal computers.

• iShares S&P Global Technology Sector (IXN): down 28% year-to-date; Microsoft 9.4%; Intel is 4.7% (black line)
• Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK): down 28.3% year-to-date; Microsoft is 10.8%; Intel is 4.8% (green line)

First, Google (GOOG) came out with earnings that were lower than expected. Then Microsoft (MSFT) missed earnings forecasts by a penny. The earnings seemed to signal that our slowing economy was weighing on demand for computer-related products, says Vivek Shankar for Bloomberg.

Google’s slide raises concern that spending is falling in the online advertising market, which they dominate. Microsoft dominates the software industry, where spending seems to have tapered off as well.

Companies that get a majority of their revenue outside the United States, such as Intel (INTC), have fared better. Intel’s earnings reports this week surpassed analyst estimates. Google gets half of its revenue in the United States, while Microsoft gets 60% of its revenue domestically. This strength doesn’t appear to be enough to boost the global technology ETF, however, particularly because Intel is not as strongly weighted in it as Google and Microsoft happen to be.

The technology ETFs trading lower on the news include:

• PowerShares QQQ (QQQQ): down 10.8% year-to-date; Google is 4.9%; Intel is 2.7%; Microsoft is 5.2%
• Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK): down 15.1% year-to-date; Google is 5.5%; Intel is 5.5%; Microsoft is 9.2%
• First Trust Nasdaq-100 Technology Sector Index Fund (QTEC): down 10.1% year-to-date; Google is 2.9%
• iShares S&P Global Technolgy Report (IXN): down 12.4% year-to-date; Google is 4.6%; Intel is 4.7% and Microsoft is 8.3%