TAIWAN – Taiwan-based Foxconn has unveiled its first software base in mainland China, according to a report from ChinaTechNews.com. This comes after the company signed a letter of intent with the municipal government of Nanjing earlier this year.
According to the report, CEO Terry Guo said the company chose the Pukou district of Nanjing for its facility, which will design wireless communications networks, enterprise information security and medical software.
The company plans to recruit 30,000 software engineers in five years for the Nanjing site, according to media reports. The site is now operational with more than 200 software developers.
EL SEGUNDO, CA – Contract manufacturers are getting into the LCD-TV market in a big way, with global production of such sets expected to rise by more than a factor of five by 2011, iSuppli Corp. predicts.
ATHENS, OH – Innovation, the future and family took center stage when Dr. Jennie S. Hwang addressed Ohio University undergraduates as the schools’ commencement speaker in June.
In her talk, Dr. Hwang, president of H-Technologies Group, focused on the elements she deems crucial for workplace success. She advised the 4,500 graduates and about 25,000 others in attendance to “go for creativity and innovation, no matter what field you will be entering.
Dr. Hwang, who is the first woman to earn a doctorate in materials science and engineering from Case Western Reserve, offered specific words for female graduates. “To have both a career and a family and to do well in both is indeed a daunting task. It takes effort, discipline and planning. But it can be done [and] nothing can be more fulfilling.”
Dr. Hwang, who was previously a commencement speaker at her alma mater, Kent State University, spoke from experience. In addition to raising two children, she was director of technology at Lockheed Martin, and has held top positions at SCM Corp. and Sherwin Williams, and has been a successful entrepreneur, having launched several businesses.
VANCOUVER – Northstar Electronics announced second-quarter revenues were $472,828, up almost 27% year-over-year. The company incurred a loss of $201,043 for the quarter, down almost 6% from the same period last year.
First-half revenues were $660,360, down 33% year-over-year. The company incurred a net loss of $408,497, up 17%.
In the first half, Northstar won two contracts from Lockheed Martin: The first award, from Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, is worth $6.3 million. Under it, Northstar is manufacturing parts for the refurbishment of P-3 Maritime Surveillance airplanes. Under the second contract, from Lockheed Martin Canada, Northstar is designing and building prototypes of a sonar system.
Northstar provides EMS services and develops various security and defense OEM products.
SAN JOSE – The EMS market will continue to grow briskly in the coming years as electronics manufacturing outsourcing continues its relentless march, reports Electronic Trend Publications. The research firm reports EMS industry revenue will nearly double in the next five years, reaching $442 billion in 2011.
SALT LAKE CITY – Electronics contract manufacturer CirTran Corp. reported net sales of $2.87 million for the second quarter, up 25.7% sequentially and 29.4% year-over-year.
For the first half, CirTran reported sales of $5.16 million, up 30.4% over the same period last year.
The company reported a net loss for the quarter of $2.57 million, which included interest and other expenses totaling $1.35 million.
In a statement, Iehab J. Hawatmeh, the company’s chairman and president, said expenses were higher in the second quarter because of additional marketing spending. He said the company is hopeful the increased costs will result in increased revenues in the third and fourth quarter.
TEDDINGTON, UK – The National Physical Laboratory seeks input for its electronics defects database.
Available soon at http://defectsdatabase.npl.co.uk, the confidential databasewill amass common problems and make images freely available for engineers to implement corrective actions in processes or designs.
ST. PETERSBURG – EMS/ODM Foxconn Electronics plans to invest at least $50 million constructing a plant near St. Petersburg, local reports say.
According to the report, Foxconn will build several HP product lines at the plant, including PCs, LCD monitors and network gear to be sold in Russia and worldwide, the company says.
The company earlier said the suburban St. Petersburg construction site would total 60,000 sq. meters.
BEIJING – EMS provider Elcoteq Beijing was recently awarded with the Beijing government’s Capital Civilized Enterprise Award and the 2006 Civilized Enterprise of Business Development Area Award.
The Capital Civilized Enterprise Award was awarded for developing a business that is positively integrated into the Beijing community and meets the standards the government is fostering in preparation for the 2008 Olympics.
The 2006 Civilized Enterprise of Business Development Area Award was presented by the succinctly named Committee of Business Development Area of Social Construction of Ideological Infrastructure for contributions to accelerating the development of the high-tech industrial park as an international technology center.
This was the second year in a row Elcoteq won the award.
EL PASO, TX – Powell-Mucha Consulting Inc. and SMTA present a third Webinar in a four-part series: Guide to Building a Competitive EMS Brand - EMS Account Acquisition Strategy.
This Webinar will take place Aug. 22 from 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. EST. It will cover profiling the OEM decision team; developing a robust lead qualification system; implementing a mindshare maintenance process to minimize wasted sales calls, and measuring marketing and sales effectiveness.
Other questions addressed by this series include: How can EMS providers differentiate their services to customers, given that these services are essentially the same? How can you best market internal competencies such as RoHS conversion support, project launch, Lean manufacturing, product design or post-manufacturing support?
WILLOW GROVE, PA – A potential low-cost cure for Microsoft’s recently publicized billion-dollar Xbox reliability headache is being recommended by an SMT assembly equipment manufacturer in conjunction with a German rework specialist.