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LAS VEGAS -- Revenues from sales of consumer electronics are expected to increase 9% during the upcoming holiday shopping season, show the results of a new survey by the Consumer Electronics Association. Predicted at the top of wish lists: MP3 players.

The survey is based on 1,000 randomly selected U.S. adults interviewed by phone by CEA. Based on the survey, CEA forecasts that overall holiday spending will increase 14% per average household to $1,430, from $1,254 in 2004, factoring in gifts, decorations, food, travel and other assorted holiday expenses.

"Peace, happiness, health - and consumer electronics - are on the wish lists of Americans this holiday season, according to our forecast survey," CEA said. "Despite concern about the overall economy, consumers intend to purchase, as well as hope to receive, a plethora of consumer electronics gifts this holiday season. More, our survey indicates that retailers and consumers alike will be humming a happy tune entering the New Year, as results show the MP3 player is going to be one of the hottest sellers."

The survey tracks CE devices consumers intend to give as gifts, as well as those they hope to receive. The MP3 player topped both lists this year displacing the digital camera at the top of the gift list and the plasma TV at the top of the wish list from last year's survey. Consumer interest in buying a portable MP3 player has increased eight points from 2004, to 28%. Revenues from sales of MP3 players are up 105% so far this year, according to CEA.

For the second year in a row, CEA also surveyed CEA|CNET Tech First Panel participants for the holiday study in order to determine the holiday gifting intentions of technology early adopters. The study was administered via the Internet to an online sample of CNET users who were screened as people who adopt consumer electronics products in the early to mid-product life cycle stages.

The CEA|CNET Tech First Panel sheds light on the thoughts, behaviors and desires of the first consumers to buy technology products. Their interests and behaviors are often precursors to future mass market trends. The MP3 player topped their list for gift-giving, as well.

Fifty-seven percent said they are likely to purchase an MP3 player this season to give as a gift. Other top early adopter gift-giving items included a digital camera, internal PC upgrade, video game system and home networking devices. Following the MP3 player, the full wish list for the randomly selected survey respondents included, in order of preference: plasma television, digital camera, laptop PC, big screen TV, desktop PC, video game system, high-definition television, DVD recorder and home theater speakers or system.

The gift-giving list included: portable MP3 player, digital camera, video game system, cordless phone, home DVD player, portable headset CD, game peripherals, DVD recorder, cellphone and laptop PC.

When adult consumers were asked what they wanted most, CE products followed peace, happiness and good health; conversely, when asked what their kids wanted most, respondents listed CE products first with video games leading the inventory. Read more ...
WASHINGTON -- The National Association of Manufacturers praised this week's announcement by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative of a formal request to China for more data on IP enforcement by the Chinese government.


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GUADALAJARA -- Solectron Corp. today announced an expansion of its Guadalajara facility, the company's largest plant in the Americas. The new capabilities include enclosures services and design and engineering. Read more ...
WOBURN, MA — Masstech EMS today announced a family of service offerings designed to help customers comply with changing environmental regulations. The firm's Lead Free Conversion Program helps OEMs prepare for and comply with the EU RoHS directive.


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PALO ALTO, CA -- Agilent Technologies today announced that Tessolve Inc., an independent semiconductor-test engineering service provider in Bangalore, India, has purchased the first Agilent 93000 Pin Scale system sold in that country.

Tessolve is using the system to test digital and mixed-signal devices for its major integrated device manufacturers and fabless customers as well as for emerging local customers in India.

The system was chosen for its ability to test ICs, SOCs and SIPs within bandwidths of 200 Mbps to 3.6 Gbps.

India has already become a world leader in software services, and is poised to do the same in the semiconductor industry. According to Bryan Wang, an analyst at In-Stat, India will have the world's fastest-growing electronics industry over the next several years, outpacing even China. The Indian electronics market, worth $11.5 billion in 2004, will hit a compound annual growth rate of 23% to reach $40 billion by 2010, said Wang.

Many top semiconductor companies including Intel, Texas Instruments, IBM, Samsung, Freescale, Toshiba and Infineon, have design and manufacturing centers in India, which presents a clear opportunity for Tessolve.

"We opened our 50,000 sq. ft. chip testing center in Bangalore to put an end to India's testing limitations for SOC designs coming out of India," said Raja Manickam, chief executive of Tessolve. "Now, with our purchase of the Agilent 93000, Tessolve is positioned to become India's leading independent semiconductor test house. Eighty percent of India's semiconductor design houses are already based in Bangalore, and the Agilent Pin Scale test system allows us to offer them a low-cost, scalable platform that can be employed from characterization to high-volume manufacturing."

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WESTFORD, MA. & WAKEFIELD, MA – PLM provider MatrixOne and RuleStream Corp., provider of rules-driven product management (RPM) solutions, have integrated the companies' flagship products as part of an ongoing implementation at The Babcock & Wilcox Co. (B&W).
 
B&W, a subsidiary of McDermott International, provides products and services to the power generation industry. The integration of RPM, PLM and MCAD systems allows B&W to use existing knowledge to create and manage raw material items, and provides thousands of possible part/spec combinations.
 
"Leading manufacturers are already shortening engineering time through process improvement supported by new rules-driven software," said Marc Halpern, research director at industry analyst firm Gartner. "In the future, the integration between PDM and the rules engine will allow innovative new products to be designed with CAD models using PDM-controlled parts and items that are based on specifications and the context of use. This will streamline the generation of project proposals, make estimates of project costs more accurate and maximize part reuse."
 
Engineers will be able to review their custom engineering designs, incorporate engineering changes--even those with complicated design dependencies--and ensure up-to-date product information from their MatrixOne PLM system and SolidWorks MCAD models.

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