EL SEGUNDO, CA – Although Dell sold more PCs than any other OEM last year, 2006 will go down as the year of HP, with the company racking up market share gains that permitted it to capture the top ranking in the second half, says iSuppli.
 
In the fourth quarter of 2006, HP shipped 11.6 million PCs, up 21.1% year-over-year. This was more than three times the rate than the PC industry average of 6.3% growth during the period, according to iSuppli.
 
In contrast, Dell shipped 9.6 million PCs in the fourth quarter of 2006, down 8.6% year-over-year. Dell was the only Top-5 PC OEM to report a decline in fourth-quarter shipments.
 
Lenovo held onto third place, with shipments of 4.8 million, up from 4.4 million in 2005. The Chinese PC company’s lead over fourth-placed Acer shrank from 1.3 million units in the third quarter to only 348,000 units in the fourth quarter. Acer came on strong in the fourth quarter, with year-over-year unit growth of 42.7%.
 
Worldwide PC shipments in the fourth quarter amounted to 66.7 million units, up 11% sequentially and up 6.3% from 62.7 million during the same period in 2005.
 
On the semiconductor side, 2006 saw the escalation of the PC microprocessor war between Advanced Micro Devices and Intel. Pricing was a major weapon, as was dual-core microprocessor technology for mainstream PCs. The next stage of this contest will be the battle to control the market for quad-core microprocessors in mainstream applications, says the firm.
 

PASADENA – SupplyFrame announced the release of the SupplyFrame GoPart search engine widget. The free widget reportedly lets design engineers and buyers find the most current available facts about millions of electronic components, in real-time.
 
GoPart is an extension of the company’s electronic component search engine, which offers pricing, availability, sources, trends, and electronic component cross reference data. It opens an electronic component search engine inside many applications, including EDA, MRP, MS Excel or a browser. It is said to present complete, live information including electronic component datasheets, RoHS compliance, volume pricing and lead times.
 
Avnet Electronics Marketing will attach its database to GoPart. Under an agreement, Avnet will distribute the widget in the North American market through its Website and field sales force.
 
The widget is available at www.supplyframe.com/gopart.
 
 

MUNICH – Productronica, the biennial electronics manufacturing trade show, will take place Nov. 13-16, in Munich.
 
The exhibition, perhaps the world’s largest electronics manufacturing show, will include production technologies for semiconductors, displays, printed circuit boards, materials processing, mounting technology, product finishing, measurement and testing, quality assurance, EMS, productions logistics and material flow technology. 
 
The event is expected to bring more than 1,500 exhibitors and 44,000 attendees.
 
Highlights will include organic electronics, photovoltaics, and “green” electronics. The EMS Village will feature outsourcing information for development, production, logistics and services. Reliable product tracking (traceability), cost-cutting ERP, materials/MES, and other types of goods management and logistics will be featured. 
 
Productronica will feature special shows and live demonstrations. The special show titled System-in-Package will present the functional adaptation of electronics to the application environment. Two Productronica forums will detail industry challenges and corresponding solutions.
 
For more information, visit www.productronica.com and www.global-electronics.net. 
 

BANNOCKBURN, IL – North American PCB shipments fell 2.6% in January and bookings dropped 18.7% year-over-year, the IPC said. The book-to-bill ratio remained under parity at 0.91.
 
Rigid shipments were down 3.5%, and bookings were down 19.2% year-over-year. Flexible circuit shipments were up 14.3%, while bookings were down 10.6%.
 
The rigid book-to-bill ratio was 0.91; the flex circuit book-to-bill ratio edged up to 0.93.
 
Rigid PCBs make up an estimated 85% of PCB sales in North America.
 
The results include 11% of foreign-produced boards.