South Africa
Webb Industries has made a substantial investment in a state of the art iBwave software package in order to boost the company’s ability to service its network operator customers. Globally recognised iBwave is regarded by many in the industry as the world’s leading software package for the design of indoor coverage solutions. Special programmes are underway at Webb to train dedicated personnel in the use of the software.
Overseas
Business
Analog Devices announced financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 2011. Revenue was $758 million, a 4% decrease from $791 million in the immediately prior quarter and a 5% increase from $720 million in the same period one year ago. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) was $0,71. This compares with diluted EPS of $0,78 in the prior quarter and $0,65 in the same period one year ago.
Avago Technologies reported net revenue of $603 million for the third quarter of its fiscal year 2011, an increase of 8% compared with the previous quarter, and up 10% from the same quarter last year. Third quarter net income was $144 million, or $0,57 per diluted share. This compares with net income of $135 million, or $0,54 per diluted share last quarter, and $123 million, or $0,50 per diluted share in the same quarter last year.
Mentor Graphics announced financial results for its fiscal second quarter, with revenues of $213,7 million and GAAP earnings per share of $0,04. For the third quarter, the company expects revenues of about $245 million and GAAP earnings per share of approximately $0,18. For the full year, the company now expects revenues of approximately $1,004 billion and GAAP earnings per share of approximately $0,68.
Companies
Farnell has been awarded the Outstanding Sales Growth 2010 award from MTL Instruments, a developer and supplier of system infrastructure products and protection equipment to the process industries. Farnell offer several product lines from MTL Instruments’ extensive offering, including automation and process control products, passive components, and the latest range of surge protection devices and other power and line management products.
Communications Systems announced the successful acquisition of Patapsco Designs of the UK for its Transition Networks business unit. The acquisition adds pseudowire, also known as TDM over IP or Circuit Emulation Services (CESoIP) and a variety of ISDN products including ISDNoIP to Transition Networks’ portfolio and capabilities.
Industry
According to new IDTechEx research, the market for wireless sensor networks (WSN) will grow rapidly from $0,45 billion in 2011 to $2 billion in 2021. These figures refer to WSN defined as wireless mesh networks, ie, self-healing and self-organising. Wireless Sensor Networks will eventually enable the automatic monitoring of forest fires, avalanches, hurricanes, failure of country-wide utility equipment, traffic, hospitals and much more over wide areas, something previously impossible. It has started already with more humble applications such as automating meter readings in buildings, and manufacture and process control automation.
Wireless combination IC shipments are forecast to grow by almost 24% in 2011, according to IMS Research’s latest report. The vast majority of the growth is due to just two applications – smartphones and tablet PCs – and one particular combination IC: Bluetooth/FM/WLAN. The continued growth of IC shipments will see total combination IC revenues rise from $2,5 billion in 2010 to almost $7 billion in 2016; an aggregate growth rate of 18%.
The transition from older-style can-type tuners to silicon TV tuners finally began to occur in 2010. Today, the top TV set manufacturers are actually putting silicon tuners directly on their main TV chassis boards and many ODMs are using can-type modules that contain silicon tuners and demodulators. In addition, mobile video services in China, Brazil and the US are creating new growth markets for all-digital mobile tuners, which, according to new In-Stat research, will drive the value of silicon TV tuners to $750 million in 2015.
According to the latest tracker from Databeans, the sensors market is growing significantly faster than the overall semiconductor market. The sensor market is forecasted to have a 10% compound annual growth rate, with average unit prices decreasing by 1% over the same 5 year time frame. Contactless smartcards and NFC transceivers are also growing strong with an estimated compound annual growth rate of 20%. The two strongest market segments impacting the sensor industry are the consumer and the automotive industry. The revenue for sensors in the consumer market segment is forecasted to increase to $853 million by the end of 2012 and $203 million for the automotive segment respectively. These two segments constitute 40% of the sensors market alone.
Worldwide production of printed circuit boards (PCBs) grew by 19% over 2009 to nearly $55 billion, according to the World PCB Production Report for the Year 2010, recently released by IPC. Approximately 2600 PCB fabricators produced an estimated $54,772 billion in 2010. PCB production grew in all regions in 2010 as the industry recovered from the recession. Production grew by 6,9% in North America, 14,4% in Europe and 21,1% in Asia, increasing Asia’s share of world PCB production to 87%. Rigid-flex was the highest growth category. Metal-core PCBs, while less than 1% of world PCB production, was the second fastest growing category in 2010.
As illustrated in the latest DisplaySearch quarterly LED supply/demand market forecast report, market indicators continue to predict a rise in LED usage across applications, with lighting leading the way in LED applications with a predicted increase of 20% over 2010. The total package revenue for backlight and lighting applications was $7,2 billion in 2010 and is forecast to reach $12,7 billion in 2014. A heightened demand for LED lighting applications is the main driver of this dramatic increase. Fortunately, suppliers have taken note of these trends and have planned for increased capacity in the future. In 2011, DisplaySearch predicts global LED capacity will reach 180 billion units, and by 2013 will reach 227 billion.
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