With DRAM makers devoting more capacity to DDR2-667 and NAND flash, Etron Technology chairman Lu Chao-chun yesterday said he remains optimistic about the SDRAM market in the next few months.
Scottsdale (AZ) - Sony's Playstation Portable (PSP) was the best-selling portable game console in 2005, but the Nintendo DS has turned the tables this year: According to market research firm In-Stat, the Nintendo may ship 25 to 30% more devices than Sony.
Sacramento (CA) - The California Assembly and Senate have passed a bill that would bar most mobile phone calls made while driving. Senate Bill 1613 would make calling on a non-hands-free phone an infraction that is punishable by fines. The bill now heads to Governor Schwarzenegger for signing.
If the bill is signed into law, starting July 1, 2008 offending drivers could be fined $20 for the first violation and $50 for each violation afterwards. The law explicitly allows drivers to call for fire or police help.
Posted by Rob Enderle, Principal Analyst, Enderle Group
This week Intel announced they were going to layoff over 10,000 workers and, strangely enough, the stock market reacted negatively to this news. This may have been one of the biggest blunders for a company having a great deal of difficulty this year.
A combination of consistently tight supply and strong demand is not only sustaining the firm pricing of DDR2, but it could also drive the cost of DRAM supplied with PC systems to more than 10% of the cost of an individual PC, according to industry players.
Leading mobile-phone makers Nokia and Motorola will increase their semiconductor spending by the highest percentage among the world's top-10 OEM chip buyers in 2005 and 2006, research firm Isuppli predicts.
Third-generation (3G) subscriptions, including CDMA2000, are forecast to hit 285 million by the end of 2006," says Jake Saunders, the Asia-Pacific director at ABI Research.
Palm expects to report fiscal Q1 2007 revenues to be in the range between $354 and $356 million, down about 7% from the earlier guidance of $380 million to $385 million.
Investigators for Hewlett-Packard sought private telephone records of board members while hunting for leaks to the media of confidential company information, the computer maker said in a regulatory filing Wednesday.
AMD today said that it has received approvals to acquire ATI from Canadian Commissioner of Competition and the German Federal Cartel Office. The company also announced that the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act has expired, which implies that the the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice have been properly notified of the transaction and do not intend to take action against it.
There appears to be little that Intel can currently do to boost its stock price. Even the dramatic restructuring announced yesterday isn't enough to improve the shaky situation of Intel shares.
Japanese electronics giant Matsushita, the maker of Panasonic products, has begun recalling some 6000 laptop batteries due to fears that they may overheat, a company spokesman has said.
The average quotes for 17" LCD monitor panels rose $12 in the first half of September to $125, a 10.6% increase from the second half of August and the largest increase during the past two years, according to WitsView Technology.
Worldwide OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) shipments grew 15% on-year to 16.1 million units in the second quarter of 2006, but revenues experienced an annual decrease of 14%, according to research firm Displaysearch.
El Segundo (CA) - The world's largest semiconductor company saw its chip revenues dropping dramatically in the second quarter of this year. Isuppli estimates that the firm's sales pulled back by almost 13%, resulting in a market share off 11.4% - the lowest level since Isuppli began tracking semiconductor sales in 2002.
