South Africa
Spescom reported an improved trading position for its second fiscal half, with a R0,5m profit. This contrasts the trading loss of R8m returned for the first six months of its financial year, ended 30 September, 2006. Spescom attributed the second half's enhanced operational performance to improved performance across all divisions and in particular, growth in the call centre market.
Vodacom Ventures, a subsidiary of the Vodacom Group, has signed a deal with G-Mobile Holdings - the holding company of WirelessG, a South African broadband Internet provider. The deal effectively gives Vodacom a 26% stake in G-Mobile. WirelessG offers integrated WiFi broadband services that are bundled with other connectivity services. WiFi is an ideal complement to its 3G HSDPA mobile broadband services as it provides an alternative means of connectivity, according to Vodacom.
Rasai Holdings, part of a broad based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) consortium, has acquired a 30% shareholding in OEN Enterprises, a local supplier of process and environmental equipment. Rasai is chaired by Zandile Jakavula, a former CEO of Metrorail and Spoornet, and includes amongst its shareholders, unemployed graduates (SAGDA), a women's group (Nesica), and a company housing young black professionals (Dreamworld). Some of the directors of Rasai include Thomas Mohaule and Justin Bgoni. In addition to the new partnership, OEN Enterprises has appointed Colwyn Savings as the national sales manager in order to incorporate the combined resources of the partners into the new company strategies.
Generator Logic has been appointed to supply generator sets for the rollout of Madagascar's cellular network. The project will see Generator Logic build and supply 41 13 kVA gensets. Generator Logic is located in Spartan, Johannesburg.
Sentech CEO, Sebiletso Mokane-Matabane, has been awarded the Top ICT Business Woman in Africa 2006 at the African ICT Achievers Awards that was held in Sandton in November. Now in its seventh year, the African ICT Achievers Awards has seen tremendous growth and embraced a full programme for 2006. The other finalists in the same category were Sandy Pullinger, managing director of nFold and Sisanda Ntlabathi of Info Tech Resource Centre.
Retron has moved to 15A and 15B Fourth Street, (Don Rod House, 2nd floor), Wynberg. Note that this is directly opposite the company's old location. The telephone and fax numbers remain the same at: tel +27 (0) 11 786 0553; fax +27 (0) 11 440 8275.
Overseas
Companies
Thomson has agreed to sell its consumer electronics accessories activities outside Europe and the rights to the RCA name and other names in the field of consumer electronics accessories to Audiovox Corporation. The CE accessories business develops and sells under the RCA, Jensen, Acoustic Research and other brand names, a broad range of accessories that function with audio, video or consumer electronics products. Audiovox will pay Thomson approximately $50m plus additional compensation over a five-year period in connection with sales.
Hewlett-Packard has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Bitfone, a mobile phone middleware company.
TTI and Berkshire Hathaway have entered into a definitive agreement which will see the privately-held passives, connectors and electromechanical components distributor become part of the Berkshire Hathaway group of companies. The acquisition will also include TTI's subsidiary Mouser Electronics. Warren Buffett is the chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway.
Semiconductor process control and metrology company Therma-Wave has agreed that KLA-Tencor, a larger process control company, should acquire Therma-Wave through a cash tender offer of approximately $75 m.
BASF Future Business has agreed to buy Pemeas, a German fuel cell startup company.
Microchip Technology has formed a Medical Products Group (MPG) to address the emerging challenges of the medical electronics market. According to the company, the $100 bn worldwide medical market, which is growing at around 15% a year, is seeing a general trend of personal diagnostic and therapeutic devices becoming mass-market consumer products, and its portfolio of products for embedded systems is ideally suited to this.
Renesas Technology and Powerchip Semiconductor (PSC) have agreed that Renesas will jointly manage Retronix Technologies, a wholly-owned subsidiary of PSC that is specialised in system solutions.
Element Six, formerly DeBeers Industrial Diamonds, has created a subsidiary company called Diamond Microwave Devices (DMD) and formed a partnership with Filtronic on applying diamond semiconductor material to microwave components. The company has been set up to develop diamond semiconductor materials and processing technology. Chemical vapour deposition (CVD) diamond offers a higher breakdown voltage and higher temperature operation than alternative materials.
Ohmite Manufacturing has announced that it has acquired both the Ultronix Precision Wirewound Resistor and Angstrohm Rheostat businesses of Vishay Intertechnology.
In a move to give the growing number of notebook PC users faster, more durable systems that run longer on a battery charge, Hitachi, Samsung, Seagate Technology and Toshiba have formed the Hybrid Storage Alliance. Its goals are to illustrate how flash memory/hard drive hybrid technology can extend the capabilities of today's notebook computers and accelerate its market adoption. Hybrid hard drive technology combines the capacity and cost-effectiveness of hard drives with the responsiveness, power-efficiency and durability of flash memory. Research firm IDC predicts that hybrid hard disk drives will constitute 35% of all hard disk drives shipped with portable PCs by 2010.
Infineon Technologies has signed an agreement to license austriamicrosystems' FlexRay transceiver IP. austriamicrosystems is a pioneer in time-triggered architectures. With its AS8221, the company has developed the first standard product of a full line of high-speed bus transceiver ICs for automobile data bus applications.
Newnham Research, a UK company developing a networked display technology, has changed its name to DisplayLink. The company has developed technology to connect two displays on one computer by using existing PC interfaces such as USB, Ethernet and wireless networks.
Light Blue Optics, a startup company developing a miniature colour projector for inclusion in mobile products, has agreed to license a key patent from Cambridge Enterprise. The patent is a method for realtime, full-colour holographic laser projection. Light Blue Optics' projection system uses laser light sources and diffractive techniques to deliver full-colour video images in focus at all distances - even on curved or angled surfaces.
Endesa, Spain's utility, Renesas Technology, a semiconductor supplier, and Yitran, a PLC (power line communications) fabless semiconductor company, have signed an agreement to jointly develop an open specification for automatic meter management (AMM) for remote reading and operation of domestic meters. The volume of the meter grid reaches almost 11 million meters in Spain alone. According to the group, the quality and efficiency will be guaranteed by an open specification that allows the participation of several suppliers with fully interoperable equipment.
Lighting firm Osram has signed a licensing agreement allowing it to use optically pumped semiconductor laser (OPSL) technology from Coherent for consumer laser-based projection displays for use in laser-TV and so called pocket projectors for handheld devices. The licence allows Osram to develop and deploy red, green, and blue (RGB) lasers using intellectual property from Coherent.
Industry
IC Insights has released its forecast of the top 10 fastest-growing products for 2006. Comparators are expected to top the 2006 ranking with 37% growth, while Industrial/Other Application-Specific Analog is at number two (31%). The latter is the only other category with greater than 30% growth for the year. Other analog segments include Consumer Application-Specific (#5), Voltage Regulators and References (#9), and Automotive Application-Specific (#10). The DRAM market is forecast to jump 27%, and rank #3 in the survey. Two other memory segments, EEPROM/Other (#4, 25%) and ROM (#6, 22%), are expected to grow surprisingly well. The others are: General Purpose Logic(#7, 21%), Automotive-Special Purpose Logic/MPR (#8, 18%) and Voltage Regulators and References (#9, 17%).
Surplus semiconductor inventories rose again in the fourth quarter of 2006, meaning that excess stockpiles are likely to linger through 2007, according to iSuppli. Total excess chip inventory swelled to $4,3 bn in the fourth quarter, up 4,9% from $4,1 bn at the end of Q3, according to the research group.
Strategy Analytics reckons the market for semiconductors in vehicles will be worth $5 bn in 2013, growing from $2,9 bn in 2005 because of in-vehicle infotainment and communications demand. In the period up to 2013, broader deployment of emergency-call telematics, particularly in Europe, is expected to drive the growth and boost demand for GPS and communications semiconductor devices. However, audio and video entertainment will continue to account for the majority of demand revenues, according to the company.
According to Lyra Research, worldwide digital camera shipments rose 21% in 2006 to approximately 98 million units. This sizeable growth spurt occurred despite household penetration already greater than 50% in Japan, the US, and leading nations in Western Europe. Lyra's forecast now projects digital camera shipments to exceed 130 million units in 2010 - a CAGR of more than 10%.
The market for gallium arsenide devices in defence applications will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8% over a period up from 2005 to 2010, according to Strategy Analytics. Radar, communications, smart munitions and electronic warfare contract awards are set to exceed $16 bn in 2006, and with defence projects' long lifetimes, this provides a solid base for the compound semiconductor markets, said Strategy Analytics. The emergence of gallium nitride technologies will also start to influence defence systems design, providing wider bandwidth, higher power and higher frequency capabilities, it said.
The market for organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic thin-film transistors and other organic electronics is set to be $1,4 bn in 2007 and to grow to $19,7 bn in 2012, according to industry analysts NanoMarkets. This equals a CAGR of 70%. Wireless device manufacturers are attracted by OLED technology's low power consumption and video qualities.
Organic electronics is rapidly making its way out of the lab and into real world applications, according to NanoMarkets. In a new report it says that the market for products such as OLEDs, organic thin-film transistors and other electronic products made from organic materials will grow from $1,4 bn in 2007 to $19,7 bn by 2012 and then go on to reach $34,4 bn in revenues by 2014.
The WiMAX Forum has completed its Spectrum and Regulatory Database that provides frequency availability, spectrum licensing, and regulatory information for more than 75 countries. It is being made available to help member companies plan their regional product rollouts. The database currently provides data for 2,3, 2,5, 3,5, 3,7 and 5,8 GHz frequency bands.
The EU Directive on Data Retention, approved mid-2006, requires communication service providers and network operators to retain traffic and location data for minimum and maximum periods, with the purpose of aiding the investigation, detection and prosecution of serious crimes. Service providers and operators will, therefore, be required to update and adapt their traffic data systems in order to comply with the new obligations. EU member states have until September 2007 to convert the EU Directive into national laws. A virtual brochure, which provides an overview of the latest analysis of this EU Directive, is available from Frost & Sullivan. E-mail: [email protected].
For the first time, the number of inventions at Siemens topped 10 000 in the 2006 business year. According to Siemens, its researchers and developers submitted a total of 10 410 inventions, 17% more than in the previous year. After analysing and evaluating these inventions, the Patent department applied for almost 6200 patents, up 8% from the previous business year. Siemens is the number one patent applicant in Germany and number two in Europe. It is ranked among the top 10 in the United States. The company said it holds approximately 62 000 patents.
Analog Devices has filed a patent infringement suit against Silicon Laboratories alleging that its Si84xx family of products infringe multiple US patents relating to physical construction and signalling techniques of ADI's iCoupler digital isolation products.
u-blox America has announced that it has delivered its 5 000 000th GPS receiver to Mobile Crossing, a manufacturer of rugged handheld GPS computers and personal navigation devices (PND). The GPS receiver was delivered personally to Raymond Hou, CEO of Mobile Crossing, during a special ceremony held at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Technology
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies announced the industry's first terabyte (TB) hard drive at CES 2007 in Las Vegas. Hitachi's Deskstar 7K1000 will begin shipping at a suggested retail price of $399, making the cost around 40 US cents per gigabyte.
Samsung Electronics has developed a liquid crystal display panel that can show a different image on each side of the same screen. The dual-sided thin film transistor LCD panel is expected to make mobile phones much slimmer and more differentiated in design, according to Samsung. Existing double-sided LCD panels display an image on one side and its reverse on the other.
Infineon Technologies and Global Locate claim to have developed the industry's smallest global positioning system (GPS) receiver chip for mobile telephones, smartphones and personal navigation devices. Based on the Hammerhead chip, the new Hammerhead II chip measures only 3,74 x 3,59 x 0,6 mm, for a total footprint of less than 14 mm² (49-contact BBGA). It includes LNA, RF down-converter and signal processing baseband technology on a single RFCMOS die.
Samsung Electronics says it has developed the industry's first 1 Gbit DRAM for mobile products. The synchronous DRAM is intended for use in a range of handset applications as well as for digital cameras, portable players and portable gaming products.
Powercast unveiled wireless battery technology at the Consumer Electronics Show. The company has developed Powercaster and Powerharvester modules that can recharge batteries in consumer devices using 900 MHz RF broadcasts from up to a metre away.
Nokia launched at the Consumer Electronics Show, the company's first near field communication (NFC)-enabled phone.
Nichia has claimed a white LED delivering 150 lumens/W efficiency. This efficiency is about 11,5 times higher than conventional incandescent lamps that deliver 13 lumens/W and 1,7 times higher than widely-used fluorescent lamps, said Nichia. The new light source combines a blue LED chip and yellow fluorescent material.
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