Category Archives: Hot Wires

Mike Buetow’s thoughts on the industry

Wistron On the Move

We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: EMS companies don’t sit still. Notebook ODMs, faced with falling demand and profits, are not going gently into the good night. Flextronics dumped the PC ODM business a couple years ago to … Continue reading

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Hack-tastic Failure

What’s distressing about reports of the US military plans being hacked is not so much who is doing it (China, Russia and probably anyone else with a PC and an internet connection), but why those plans are on public networks … Continue reading

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Printing Money

Per a new report from IDTechEx, printed electronics are expected to really take off … some day. The latest data from the research firm targets an attractive 15.3% CAGR over the next decade, mostly driven by OLEDs. That will push … Continue reading

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Believing Foxconn Means Suspending Belief

The Foxconn makeover is in full swing, with the latest this piece from the New York Times that supposes that the world’s largest ODM is worried that Apple — yes, Apple — might be bringing it down. When Apple was … Continue reading

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‘Innovate or Die’

While not directly related to printed circuit boards, this piece from Time Magazine on the Japan’s Uniqlo shows how one entrepreneur had the vision and courage to cast off decades of cultural aversion to risk to build one of the … Continue reading

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Headline Humor

“Foxconn Has No Plans To Make Apple Products in New Indonesia Factory” – Tech in Asia, April 30, 2013 “Foxconn to Expand to Indonesia to Make Up for Apple Shortfall” – VR-Zone, April 30, 2013

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Broken Signal

Lots of mainstream media hand-wringing over reports that Apple has returned a large number (5 million? 800 million? a gazillion?) iPhones to Foxconn for repairs. Two things are on display here. One, that calling the companies involved for clarification or … Continue reading

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Africa: The Next China?

As it has many, many times before, Samsung, the world’s largest electronics company, announced in April that it is expanding. No, that’s not exactly news, until you look at where it intends to grow: Africa. And it’s going all in. … Continue reading

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Slowdown at Foxconn

Could PCs do what the rest of the EMS industry could not — derail the Foxconn train? Over the past decade, Foxconn has been practically unstoppable. Not a backlash against China, outrage over dozens of worker suicides, at least two … Continue reading

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H-1B Free?

Those in favor of lifting limits on the US government H-1B visas, which allow workers from other countries to take jobs in the US, might want to read this alternate view. Tech companies in particular say the program is essential to … Continue reading

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