a fortune in smartphones

The New York Times recently ran an interesting profile on Cher Wang, daughter of one of the richest men in the world, who struck out on her own and made her own fortune by founding a multibillion-dollar company: With Smartphones, Cher Wang Made Her Own Fortune.

The company, HTC Corporation, makes one out of every six smartphones sold in the United States, most of which are marketed under brands like Palm and Verizon. And last month, the T-Mobile G1, designed by HTC and powered by Google's Android operating system, went on sale with quite a bit of fanfare.

But wait. Cher Wang is chairwoman of not just one, but two companies: HTC and VIA Technologies, a developer of silicon chip technology, where her husband has been chief executive since 1992. Forbes estimates the couple's wealth at $3.5 billion. So yeah, you could say she's been kind of successful.