SANTA CLARA, CA -- More than 400 industry insiders gathered here yesterday for Microsoft's first Global High Tech Summit, a forum that looked at challenges and trends facing high tech manufacturing.

In a joint effort to improve supplier collaboration, Microsoft and Intel announced proposals for the next-generation of open, interoperable business standards for small-to-medium enterprise supplier collaboration, based on the Office Open XML formats.

Under the management of the open standards body Ecma International, the Open XML document formats are now being finalized as a worldwide standard by leading tech companies including Intel. The document format standard offers flexible support for integration external XML information, which is critical to RosettaNet requirements.

Also announced was the establishment of a customer advisory board composed of companies representing various market segments, including Applied Materials, Flextronics, Juniper Networks, Nvidia, Xilinx and others.

Electronics Workbench will sponsor a free Webinar on enhanced schematic capture during PCB layout using specific software tools.

The one-hour online event takes place Oct. 3, at 9 and 3 EST.

Topics to be covered include the company's Ultiboard interface, advanced routing and placement, managing design constraints, exporting industry standard formats and more. To register, visit http://www.electronicsworkbench.com/news/pronews3b.html.

TAIPEI -- BenQ Corp.'s German handset unit is considering filing for insolvency after its board decided to halt funding to the division. BenQ's cellphone units in Brazil and elsewhere are also reviewing their financial positions, according to reports.

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WOODRIDGE, IL – Morey Corp. will build a state-of-the-art technical research and design facility next year near the EMS company's headquarters in Woodridge. The site will assist Morey’s telematics, controller, and display product lines.

Plans call for a 26,300-sq. ft., two-story facility to be located adjacent to the company’s headquarters.

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SAN JOSE – MEPTEC, the MicroElectronics Packaging and Test Engineering Council, will hold its annual packaging roadmaps symposium Nov. 16 in San Jose.

IC Packaging & Test Roadmaps: Device Trends Impact on Packaging & Test Technology and Supply Chain, the annual roadmap symposium, will overlay IC device trends with the associated current and future technology solutions for packaging and test and will also explore challenges associated with demands for full turnkey supply chain services.

For more information, visit www.meptec.org.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — The U.S. in 2006 is expected to maintain its lead in the worldwide electronics equipment design with the nation’s activities in this area driving the most semiconductor purchasing of any country, according to new data from iSuppli Corp. However, China’s rapid growth in electronic-design-generated semiconductor purchasing activity is continuing and the country is closing the gap, the research firm said.

“Design of electronic goods leads directly to equipment production, which in turn drives semiconductor purchasing. Companies that engage in design of electronic equipment, such as PCs, mobile phones and televisions, also are responsible for specifying the use of particular chips in the products being developed,” said Min-Sun Moon, OEM spend analyst for iSuppli. “Thus, these companies and the nations where they operate have a major influence on global semiconductor spending.”

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ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Jabil Circuit today beat revenue expectations, reporting fourth quarter sales of $3 billion, a 50% gain in revenue year-over-year. Full financial results for the quarter will be delayed due to ongoing investigations into the timing of past stock option grants.

The figures beat The Street's estimates of $2.8 billion. However, organic growth is expected to slow from 32% in fiscal 2006 to 11% in fiscal 2007, due in part to the end of a large contract with Philips.

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ST. LOUIS -- LaBarge Inc. won $8 million in contracts from Raytheon Missile Systems to provide cable assemblies and an integrated firing unit assembly for the Tactical Tomahawk cruise missile. The company anticipates follow-on orders.

Production will take place at LaBarge's Joplin, MO, and Huntsville, AK, facilities and is expected to continue through October 2007.

LaBarge, an EMS provider, is a Raytheon preferred supplier and received Raytheon's 2004 Leadership Excellence Award for outstanding business practices.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — The global television market is rapidly changing, and so are the rankings among the global leaders, according to iSuppli Corp.

First quarter leader TTE Corp. of China fell to third place in the unit-shipment rankings in the second quarter, supplanted by LG Electronics Corp. and Samsung Electronics, which took the first and second, respectively.

TTE’s market share for global television unit shipments dropped to 9% in the second quarter, down from 11.2%. LG's share rose from 9.7% to 11 %. Samsung achieved the biggest gain, rising to 10% from 8.6%.

TTE’s loss was the result of a slowdown of television shipments in its home market in China, where the second quarter is slower due to the end of the Chinese New Year gift-giving season. Meanwhile, Samsung surged in the LCD- TV arena and LG took the top spots both in CRT and plasma display televisions.

“The shift at the top of the leader board reflects the radical changes throughout the television industry,” said Riddhi Patel, principal analyst for television systems. “The rapid decline in CRT television shipments is rippling through the market as flat-panel TVs become increasingly price competitive.

“Furthermore, DTV demand is beginning to take shape and more consumers are making the transition from analog in order to make their home-entertainment systems future proof," Patel added. “This also is causing consumers to buy more flat-panel televisions in the 40" size range, as opposed to 27" to 29" televisions a few years ago.

iSuppli predicted 5.7% growth in worldwide television unit shipments in 2006, to 187.7 million units. By 2010, the global television market will expand to 226.6 million units.”

CRT TVs will lose their historical dominance of the TV market in 2009, when they will account for about 42% of unit shipments, while LCD-TVs share will grow to 47.9% that year.

 

 

Competition sharpens

While the ranking among the top LCD-TV OEMs remained the same for the second quarter, a shake-up among the dominant manufacturers may be coming, as Sharp Electronics Corp. saw its nearest competitors come dangerously close to surpassing its leadership position.

Sharp had 15.2 percent of the LCD-TV unit shipment market share in the first quarter of 2006. This number dropped to 14.5 percent in the second quarter, drawing Sharp closer to the No. 2 position. Samsung increased its LCD- TV market share from 12.4 percent in the first quarter to 14.2 percent in the second quarter, only a fraction of a percentage point behind Sharp. Sony Corp. also increased its market share to 13.8 percent in the second quarter, up from 12.2 percent in the first.

iSuppli’s second quarter rankings for LCD television shipments are shown in Table 2 below and attached.

 

NORCROSS, GA -- Siemens Automation & Drives will integrate Factory Logic's Lean Operations Suite into its Siplace placement equipment, the companies have jointly announced.

Factory Logic's software synchronizes production pace and material flow with customer demand.  

The software resides on corporate IT systems and interfaces with the placement machines on the factory floor.

TAIPEI -- BenQ will move its Taiwan-based handset production to China and possibly sell its cellphone manufacturing plants in Europe as part of cost-cutting measures designed to return the ODM to profitability.

BenQ Mobile, the firm's handset business, will be made a standalone entity, while its contract assembly work will be spun off and renamed, according to various news reports.

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