MACAO -- Nam Tai Electronics chief executive Masaaki Yasukawa tendered his resignation, effective immediate, citing family reasons. The company has named Wong Kuen Ling (Karene Wong) president and acting chief executive.

Wong has been with the company since June 1989, and since 2007 has been chairman of NTEEP.

Nam Tai is the world's 20th largest EMS provider, but its revenues have plunged more than 20% this year through September.

STAMFORD, CT -- The economic crisis is having a significant impact on the semiconductor industry, as worldwide semiconductor revenue growth in 2009 is expected to be 1%, down by approximately seven points from previous estimates, according to preliminary estimates from Gartner Inc.

In the third quarter, worldwide semiconductor revenue for 2009 was forecast to be $307.7 billion, a 7.8% increase from 2008. Gartner now expects worldwide semiconductor revenue in 2009 to total approximately $282 billion, a 1% increase.

Although semiconductor companies mostly met expectations for the third quarter (the semiconductor industry grew by approximately 5% quarter over quarter) guidance for the fourth quarter continues to drop. Gartner estimates worldwide semiconductor revenue in 2008 to total $279.4 billion, a 2% increase from 2007.

"Semiconductor growth was surprisingly strong until recently, given the very weak economic environment, but this will start to change in the fourth quarter of 2008," said Bryan Lewis, research vice president at Gartner. "Mounting evidence suggests that the semiconductor industry will see negative growth starting in the fourth quarter of 2008, and that this will continue throughout most of 2009."

Gartner assesses the potential impact on semiconductor growth by checking the sensitivity of changing demand in key application markets. Gartner applied assumptions to reductions in system units and reductions in semiconductor content in systems. PCs and cellphones account for approximately a third of the total semiconductor market, so they are the biggest applications for adjusting growth. For example, if the system unit percentage change of PCs is lowered by 8%, this would impact semiconductor growth by 1.61%.

"In a recession, it's important to remember that there will not only be a potential reduction in the number of systems sold, but also a move to lower-cost systems with less semiconductor content," Lewis said.

NATICK, MA – Cognex is offering a series of free machine vision seminars.
 
This half-day event explains setup and deployment of vision systems for automated inspection tasks in the automotive, medical and electronics industries, among others.
 
Each seminar combines a basics tutorial with live demonstrations of the four-step process for setting up a machine vision application with EasyBuilder software for In-Sight systems. The tutorial covers how vision systems work in manufacturing applications to accurately inspect, guide, and identify products.
 
The seminars run through December and are held in the US, Canada and Mexico. To register, visit www.cognex.com/seminar.
 

LOS ALTOS, CA – Although capital investment outlays will slow, the communications equipment industry will survive the economic downturn in reasonable shape, says Henderson Ventures.
 
Worldwide equipment production will slow from a 6.8% rate in 2007 to a 3.2% pace this year, according to the research firm. A further deceleration will take growth rates to 2.7% next year before rebounding to 9.6% in 2010.
 
China is expected to achieve a solid 9.6% gain this year. Even so, that pales before the 19.8% burst chalked up during 2007, says Henderson.
 
During the past few years, the total number of handset subscribers has mushroomed as prices have plunged to meet market requirements in developing countries. But a dwindling unserved market, along with a poor economic environment during 2009, is likely to result in a drop in new subscribers, the company predicts.
 
Handset shipments are slated to decelerate sharply, as the economic environment encourages cellphone owners to postpone the purchase of upgraded handsets. Shipment growth is predicted to decelerate from 15.1% in 2007 through 7.8% in 2008 to only 3.9% next year.
 
And given the increased emphasis on developing markets, handset revenues are forecast to be stagnant next year. The ongoing financial crisis is expected to be resolved by 2010. Rejuvenated economic growth and a new replacement cycle will create a 9.5% unit gain that year.