Southern Africa
There are substantial opportunities and economic potential for South Africa in the global electrotechnical arena, according to two newly-released reports on the country's electrotechnical contract manufacturing industry and the software market. The research was commissioned by the dti's Trade and Industry South Africa (TISA) Electrotechnical Unit and forms part of TISA's Customised Sector Programmes (CSP) that are designed to develop, integrate and maximise the impact of the electrotechnical sector, both nationally and globally.
TISA's 'contract manufacturing research study' focused on original equipment manufacturers, original design manufacturers and PCB and component manufacturers. The value of the global Electrotechnical Contract Manufacturing (ECM) industry is estimated to be between $70 and $90 bn a year. The SA industry has revenues of around R750m a year. The whole sub-sector comprises about 150 companies, of which 18 are large players and 66 are SMMEs entities.
TISA's 'software market research study' revealed that South Africa's software industry, valued at R11,6 bn in 2003, is expected to grow by 11,5% over the next five years. The export software market is valued at only 6% of the domestic market and the five largest software vendors control 40% of all software revenue.
One of TISA's key roles is to facilitate the development of strategic partnerships with industry, within the dti, with other government departments and with stakeholders to encourage growth. The research reports are available on the SAVANT website www.savant.co.za.
The smartcard industry is poised for an unprecedented explosion in South Africa, with three large-scale rollouts set to begin in 2005, amongst others. More than 50-million smartcards are expected to be issued in 2004 and 2005 combined, and by 2009, more than 100-million smartcards will be in active use in South Africa, it said. These are the key findings contained in a new report by World Wide Worx and Razor's Edge Business Intelligence. From 1 January 2005, all new credit and debit cards issued in South Africa are required to be smartcards. The single biggest smartcard project this country will see, however, will be the new Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS), which will require the replacement of around 30 million identity documents with smartcards. Telecom operators are expected to add another 20-million cards in 2005 alone, through the issue of new prepaid and SIM cards, while all pension payments handled by the Department of Social Welfare are expected to move to a smartcard system from 2005 onward, following successful projects in most provinces.
Altech continued to show impressive growth and increased shareholder value when the group released its interim results for the half-year period ended 31 August 2004. Commenting on the results, Altech CEO Craig Venter said he was pleased with the group's on-going consistent performance of creating shareholder value while, at the same time, having the ability to strategically position itself for future growth. Revenue and operational income increased by 35% and 57% to R2653 bn and R249m respectively. "With continuous focus being placed on strong asset management, Altech's balance sheet remains strong, with cash and cash equivalents of R722m after payments were made for the NamITech acquisition, R543m, and an Altech share buy-back of R247m." Venter also said that following the acquisition of NamITech, Altech had concluded two black economic empowerment transactions of some significance with NamITech Holdings disposing 28% of its equity to Pamodzi Investments Holdings and Altech Data disposing 25,01% of its equity, also to Pamodzi.
Spescom DataVoice, the voice transaction management operation of Spescom, has entered into a technology alliance with Key Performance Technologies (KPT) that will extend the DataVoice product range to include KPT's Qnique solution. Qnique is a browser-based integrated solution for selecting and managing contact centre operators.
Spescom Software, the US operation of Spescom, has announced an alliance with MRO Software. The companies combine their products and services into a complete package for its customers. Spescom Software is a leading provider of enterprise content and configuration management solutions, while MRO Software is a leading provider of Strategic Asset Management solutions. The initial focus of the agreement is on customers in the energy and utility markets with a major emphasis on the nuclear sector.
Webb Industries has been appointed the southern African distributor for Nordix a leading European braided coaxial cable manufacturer. Webb will be importing RG58, RG213, RG214, RG6, RG11 and the dual RG6 and RG11 cables.
Accutronics has been appointed as a representative for Nemic-Lambda power supply company for the South African territory. Nemic-Lambda manufactures DC-DC converters, AC-DC switchmode and linear power supplies, laboratory, configurable and programmable and custom power supplies, and fully-integrated rack systems.
Comztek has been awarded Cisco Distributor status by Cisco Systems for South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana, Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The distribution contract includes warehousing, fulfilment and dispatch services for the entire Cisco Systems product range.
Otto Marketing has moved to new factory/offices: 58 Wakis Avenue, Strijdom Park Ext 2, Randburg. New tel: +27 (0)11 791 1033, fax: +27 (0)11 791 1187.
Overseas
Companies
Global electronic components company Molex, has acquired Incep Technologies, a provider of system-level approaches to power delivery, high-density packaging, and thermal management solutions. Molex and Incep have been jointly working for the past two years on developing advanced power delivery solutions for high-performance semiconductors such as microprocessors and communication ASICs.
Claimed to be one of the world's largest suppliers in the telecoms sector, the newly-founded Siemens Communications Group has been formed with merger of the former Siemens fixed and mobile communications units - IC Networks and IC Mobile. The new Group, which is currently represented in more than 160 countries, is subdivided into three segments: Devices, Carrier Networks and Enterprise Networks, with a total of eight divisions. The Devices segment is subdivided into three divisions: Mobile Devices, Customer Premises Equipment and Wireless Modules. The Carrier Networks segment consists of three divisions: Mobile Networks, Fixed Networks and Carrier Services. The Enterprise Networks segment comprises two divisions: Enterprise Systems and Enterprise Services.
Wavecom has announced a new corporate structure to focus on vertical markets, which includes automotive, machine-to-machine, and consumer products such as wireless local loop phones, mobile computers and wireless PDAs. Wavecom said this restructuring will include the exit from the handset market, as well as the termination of semiconductor development. The new structure will result in significant additional headcount reductions, said the company, primarily from the closure of the Personal Communication Devices business unit and the semiconductor design group. Wavecom said the strategic decision to refocus the company's business entirely on vertical markets was due to its strong position in several of these markets and its inability to find a partner for its handset business in a timely manner.
Advanced verification specialist Emulation and Verification Engineering (EVE) of France has announced the formation of Nihon EVE, a wholly-owned subsidiary based in Yokohama, Japan. EVE offers innovative hardware-assisted verification solutions to accelerate the design of complex integrated circuits.
Seiko Epson and Sanyo Electric have outlined their previously announced LCD joint venture. The new JV will integrate the LCD operations of Seiko Epson, Sanyo Electric, Tottori Sanyo and Sanyo LCD Engineering. Incorporated on 1 October, Sanyo Epson Imaging Devices is expected to generate 200 bn yen in the second half fiscal 2004. It will be in charge of development, manufacturing and sales of small to medium size LCD displays including STN LCDs, MD-TFD LCDs, amorphous TFT LCDs and LTPS LCDs.
When Amplifier Research (AR) changed its name to AR Worldwide several months ago, it was a move that signified a renewed commitment to its global customer base, and a corporate restructuring to better serve those customers. Under the new structure, AR Worldwide functions as the corporate parent of AR Worldwide RF/Microwave Instrumentation and AR Worldwide Modular RF. The former manufactures and distributes amplifiers, antennas, transient generators and test systems, while the latter makes and distributes RF amplifiers, modules and related products.
Summit Design, a leader in electronic system-level (ESL) design solutions and methodologies has joined the European Electronic Chips and Systems design Initiative (ECSI) as an Industrial Associate Member.
EMS Technologies has been selected by Honeywell and Thales Avionics as their supplier of high speed data satellite communications products. Under a seven-year agreement, EMS will develop custom avionics products, which will complement the Honeywell/Thales MCS-4000/7000 satellite communications systems. The products include high power amplifiers and high speed data units.
SAP and Infineon Technologies have announced a new radio frequency identification (RFID) offering to meet companies' needs to connect and manage RFID hardware and software from multiple vendors.
WJ Communications has entered into a distribution agreement with Richardson Electronics where Richardson will operate as a worldwide distributor and value-added sales channel of WJ's RFID product portfolio, including the recently-announced MPR 6000 and various derivative products. The MPR 6000 is a multiprotocol UHF RFID reader card in a standard PCMCIA Type II format.
Infineon Technologies and Volkswagen have jointly developed a platform concept known by the project name 'Basic Telematics Unit', for wireless telecommunication and use of location-based information services in motor vehicles. The aim of the cooperation was to build a scalable telephone and telematics platform that additionally provides telematics functions for the price of an existing in-car telephone unit. The companies intend marketing it as a manufacturer-independent solution by making it available to all interested automobile manufacturers and suppliers.
Industry
Market research firm iSuppli has revised its projection for global shipments of OLED displays now expecting them to reach 35,3 million units this year, down from the 36,2 million units originally projected. This is up from 16,8 million in 2003, said the firm. OLED revenue is expected to reach $429m, up from $246m last year but down from the $470m forecast earlier. According to iSuppli, the revision is because mobile phone makers are opting for super-twisted-nematic (STN) LCDs instead of OLEDs to lower their bill of material costs.
Databeans has released a new analysis on the clock generation and distribution market, where revenue is growing at 18% annually. Databeans estimates that the computer segment constitutes 24% of 2003 clock management revenue, with most of this revenue coming from motherboards, followed by memory modules, and peripheral devices. Communications makes up 39% of revenue and consumer constitutes 23%.
In-Stat/MDR believes interactive program guides (IPG) to be the killer application for enhanced TV. It expects the worldwide IPG market value to grow to nearly $1 bn by 2008. IPGs will help end-users to find a TV program, movie or sporting event from among listings of thousands of available options, and then make it easy for them to select the program for viewing, tag it with a reminder for later, or even set up a recording to capture the show for time-shifting on a Personal Video Recorder.
Portelligent has released a study of 3G UMTS handsets that indicates that handset designers have substantially reduced the average complexity and manufacturing costs of the phones over the past year. First generation UMTS handsets were plagued by high system complexity and high cost when they were introduced in Europe and Asia in 2003, as well as by complaints about product size and battery life, said Portelligent. According to its 'product teardown' findings on 11 UMTS handsets introduced over the past 18 months, the average number of components found in the handsets has been reduced by over 25%. The average number of high-value ICs in the 2004 products - a strong driver of overall manufacturing cost - has declined almost 50%, as handset makers achieve more integrated designs, and as semiconductor makers come to provide more mature chipsets and technology platforms for UMTS phones.
US law firm Lasky & Rifkind, has announced that a class-action lawsuit has been filed in the US district court for the Northern District of California against Infineon Technologies. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of holders of Infineon's publicly-traded securities of between March 2000, and July 2004. The complaint alleges that Infineon and company officers and directors concealed adverse information from shareholders, including that the company engaged in anticompetitive behaviour to fix DRAM prices. In September Infineon agreed to pay a $160m fine as part of a federal DRAM price-fixing probe.
Honeywell has filed a suit against 34 electronics companies, in the US District Court for the district of Delaware, relating to a liquid crystal display patent. The patent involved increases the brightness of images and reduces the appearance of certain interference effects on an LCD, said Honeywell.
Sun Microsystems has presented Infineon Technologies with a 'Meritorious Award' for supply chain excellence citing the outstanding performance of the Infineon Memory Products Group as a supplier during fiscal year 2004.
Nutwood (UK) is offering a new free CD-ROM that covers in-depth information about electromagnetic compatibility. The 'EMC and compliance CD ROM information bank' contains a complete text of relevant directives together with lists of appropriate standards, all easily downloadable, plus a directory of companies involved in EMC, a product finder and a number of interesting articles. The authors include well-respected independent industry specialists with other articles written by specialist EMC companies. It is free in the UK, for other regions there is a handling and postage charge of ·5 (see www.compliance-club.com/about/descriptions.html).
Technology
Agilent Technologies has announced a new budget analysis capability in its advanced design system (ADS) 2004A EDA software that enables engineers to design RF systems more quickly and accurately. Agilent claims this software feature predicts RF system performance by considering specification trade-offs, such as impedance mismatch versus gain, earlier in the design cycle. In the past, RF design budgeting was achieved mainly through spreadsheet-based analysis, a time-consuming and often cumbersome process.
Lighting Science has released what it claims is a revolutionary LED light bulb, representing the first 100% digital and solid state, high performance, low cost LED floodlight. The Optimized Digital Lighting LED R-30 light bulbs costs up to 80% less than other comparable LED light bulbs, consume only 5,6 W of electricity and replace 65 W incandescent bulbs and 15 W fluorescent bulbs, it says. Also, ODL lamps reduce energy use by almost 90% for the same end lumens, with a useful life that is up to 25 times longer (50000 hours), it said.
LG Electronics claims it now offers the world's largest all-in-one LCD TV. At 55 inches (140 cm) it offers consumers a viable flat screen alternative to a market currently dominated by plasma displays. The LCD TV features LG's XD Engine Chip, which is capable of decoding digital signals offering improved brightness and contrast ratios, addressing much of the criticism of previous LCD TVs, according to the company. Another feature said LG, is the new S-IPS module, which allows for the world's largest horizontal and vertical viewing angle, at 176°. This was usually a shortcoming of LCD technology and now allows this new screen to be an effective replacement for both conventional CRT and PDP screens.
IBM has revealed a new notebook computer with an integrated fingerprint reader backed up by its Embedded Security Subsystem. The IBM ThinkPad T42 notebook has a fingerprint reader located on the wrist rest below the arrow keys. Users swipe their finger across a small horizontally-oriented sensor to log-on to their systems, software applications, web sites, or databases.
TechNote Time Watch Company (www.technotetime.com) believes it is the first company to manufacture informative watches geared towards tradesmen in the electrical and electronics fields. Its initial product line consists of specialty analog wristwatches that incorporate Ohm's law, power formulas and a resistor band chart, for AC or DC applications.
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