Epcos acquires NXP's RF MEMS business

04/28/2008

MUNICH, Germany — Passive component vendor Epcos AG (Munich, Germany) has announced to take over the RF MEMS activities from NXP Semiconductors. Through the move, the company hopes to get access to a triple-million euro market volume.
RF MEMS help to drive down power consumption of mobile handsets by up to 25 percent, Epcos said in a press release. The company claims to be world market leader in RF filters and plans to expand its product portfolio by the takeover. With RF MEMS, the company hopes to address new applications and thus increase its share of the value created in mobile handset production.
"The acquisition of NXP's RF MEMS activities strengthens our competency in the RF technology market and speeds up our transformation from a discrete component manufacturer to a systems vendor", Epcos CEO Gerhard Pegam explained. "The access to this market is a precondition to benefit from the mobile radio market growth dynamics."

Epcos said it is already cooperating with several large mobile handset manufacturers in this technology segment. Besides mobile handsets, RF MEMS can also be used in WLAN systems.

Experimental WiMAX base stations to be transferred for commercial use, says NCC

25 April 2008
Taiwan's National Communications Commission (NCC) has revealed it is drafting plans to transfer the WiMAX experimental base stations installed under the government initiated Mobile Taiwan (M-Taiwan) Program to licensed WiMAX operators for commercial use.
A number of companies have participated in the M-Taiwan Program, which aims to build a boundless Internet communication network on the island, but have failed to secure operating licenses. Such companies include Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) and Taiwan Mobile.
There are also companies such as Global Mobile, which did not participate in the M-Taiwan program but have obtained a license to provide WiMAX services.
In order to allow all related companies to share resources and avoid the waste of equipment, the NCC is to coordinate with related government agencies to set up a working group to help complete the transfer of related equipment. If necessary, the NCC will amend the criteria governing the management of wireless access business to help facilitate the transfer, the NCC added.
Under the M-Taiwan Program, a total of 78 experimental WiMAX base stations were set up on the island, with 46 located in northern Taiwan and 32 in southern Taiwan. In addition, 112 terminal-end equipment systems were installed, according to NCC data.
Four out of the six WiMAX licensees – Far EasTone Communications (FET), Tatung Telecom, WiMAX Telecom, and First International Telecom (Fitel) – took part in the M-Taiwan Program, either by themselves or through their parent companies.
The NCC also noted that the experimental WiMAX networks will expire by the end of of 2008 without further extension.

TD-SCDMA IC design house Commit reported out of business

25 April 2008
China-based TD-SCDMA IC design house Commit is reportedly to suspend operations by the end of this month, according to sources at the handset makers.
Due to the delay of China's TD-SCDMA standard certification for several years, while Commit does not have any other product lines to bring in revenues, the company recently informed staff it will suspend operations at the end of April. However, the operational team is still negotiating with its investors hoping to find funding to save the company.
Commit's dual-mode TD-SCDMA/HSDPA chips have demonstrated strong performance, presenting a possible incentive for a telecommunications company step in and take over the business, while Nokia, a major investor, might still provide reinforcement, noted the sources.
With the exit of Commit from the market, other TD-SCDMA players, including Taiwan-based MediaTek, stand to benefit from having one less competitor, while at the same time the loss could cast doubt over the whole TD-SCDMA market impacting profitability for everyone, industry watchers commented.

Taiwan market: Handset unit sales down 14.5% sequentially in March

24 April 2008
Sales of handsets in the Taiwan market totaled 590,000 units in March 2008, down 14.5% from the previous month, according to preliminary data compiled by retail channels in Taiwan.
Nokia continued to lead rivals as the number one vendor in the local market, accounting for a 31% share in terms of unit sales and 33% in terms of sales value, the data showed.
Although Taiwan-based High Tech Computer (HTC) was not among the top-five vendors, the company's sales value in March was close to the amount recorded by LG Electronics, which was ranked as the fifth largest vendor both in terms of unit sales and value, according to the data.

Taiwan market: Market share of top-five handset vendors, March 2008

FIH net earnings inch up just 1% in 2007

24 April 2008
Foxconn International Holdings (FIH), the Hong Kong-listed handset subsidiary of Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry), saw its net profits grow only 1% to US$725 million in 2007, according to the company.
Net EPS (earnings per share) were US$0.1027 in 2007, compared to US$0.1031 in 2006, the data show.
FIH cited intensified competition in the global OEM market and volatile market demand for the relatively weak growth last year. However, market sources in Taiwan indicated that both FIH's revenues and earnings were affected by a decline in sales at Motorola.
FIH said that it divested its operations in Michigan in 2007 to better realign its global resources. Market sources pointed out that the company's business unit in Michigan was set up to cope with the needs of Motorola.
For 2008, FIH will continue to expand its capacity in Langfang and Taiyuan in China as well as in India, the company said.

T-mobile Android Phone Release Seen Bringing 'avalanche'

23rd April 2008
SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- With Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile USA preparing to ship out its first cellphones built on Google's open Android platform later this year, wireless carriers are expecting an avalanche of innovation from users - and radical changes to what customers expect and demand.
But some disagree on where start-ups should focus their efforts if they aim to make money in this fast-changing landscape.
At the Wireless Innovations 2008 conference in Redwood City, Calif., sponsored by Dow Jones & Co., Joe Sims, vice president and general manager of T-Mobile's broadband and new business division, said he had already seen prototypes of the company's Android-based phone, which are scheduled to ship in this year's final quarter.
"I'm impressed," he said. "We will have more than one product...(The move to an open platform) will be innovation across the board, not just one device."
T-Mobile, like other carriers, was leery of Google at first, because the open platform that the search giant was pushing seemed radical and untested, Sims said. T-Mobile is now a part of Google's Open Handset Alliance, as is chip maker Qualcomm.
Like T-Mobile, Qualcomm was "skeptical" of Google's plan at first, said Sayeed Choudhury, Qualcomm's vice president of product management for CDMA technologies. "But we got over that hurdle when we saw the use-case models," Choudhury said. "The Web-browsing, the taking and uploading of pictures."
Choudhury said he expects big changes to happen fast once the Android phones get into consumers' hands. Nedim Fresko, director of strategic platform initiatives at Blackberry maker Research in Motion, predicted T-Mobile's release would be a "wake-up call for innovation."
But conference panelists differed on what areas of mobile technology - video distribution, social networking, enterprise or entertainment - were likely to heat up first.
"Security is the issue," Fresko said. "People want secure, managed and safe" networks.
John Smelzer, a senior vice president and manager of News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment Group's interactive media division, said photo and video distribution would be the "next killer app."
News Corp. owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires.
Fox isn't immediately interested in moving social networks to mobile, Smelzer said, but it sees great potential in start-ups working on applications that replicate the broader online experience on handsets - for instance, middleware companies, content aggregators, ad distributors and companies working on encoding and transcoding data.
Subscription-based video has served Fox well, Smelzer said, and the company plans to continue that model as networks and handsets move toward openness.
"For the long tail, we think it will be mobile Web," he said.
T-Mobile says all of its offerings will be tailored to the consumer, and the consumer, in turn, will tell the carriers what they expect their mobile devices to be able to do.
Panelists agreed that the major, inevitable changes in the next few years won't be top-down changes, but will be a response from carriers to consumers, who are going mobile in ever greater numbers and learning to expect much more from their phones. In addition, they said, the time is ripe for innovators and start-ups to deliver what consumers want in new, possibly lucrative ways.
"The college kids out there have all the ingredients, finally," said J.H. Kah, senior vice president of Korean cellular service provider SK Telecom.
"It's so easy and cheap for these kids to start new ventures," Kah said. "VCs ought to look at very early-stage (companies), but the real winners (will be) those that stick around a few years."
-By Timothy Hay, Dow Jones Newsletters; 415-439-6625
(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Sony Ericsson 1q Net Profit Slumps 48%

23rd April 2008

LONDON (Dow Jones) - Sony Ericsson, the world's No.4 maker of mobile phones, on Wednesday posted a 48% drop in first-quarter profit, as slower sales, higher research and development costs and a component shortage took a toll on the bottom line.
Net profit at the joint venture of Japan's Sony and Sweden's Ericsson fell to 133 million euros ($212 million) from 254 million euros in the first quarter of 2007.
Sales slipped 7.6% to 2.7 billion euros due to slowing demand of mid- to high-end handsets, which make up the bulk of Sony Ericsson's portfolio.
Analysts surveyed by SME Direkt on average expected net profit of 118 million euros on sales of 2.6 billion euros.
The results didn't come as a surprise as Sony Ericsson last month warned that slower growth in its European markets would hit sales and profit in the first quarter.
Ericsson shares rose 0.6% in Stockholm morning trading. Sony shares closed down 0.2%. The report came after the close of trading in Japan.
Sequential market share loss
Sony Ericsson shipped 22.3 million phones in the quarter, up 2% compared to the year-ago period and in line with consensus forecasts. Still, shipments fell 26% sequentially, a bigger drop than the typical seasonal decline of 10% to 15%.
Gross margin slipped to 29.2% from 30.3% in the first quarter of 2007, reflecting a "less favorable business mix," the company said. The gross margin disappointed some analysts after the company assured them it would be stable when it issued its profit warning last month.
The average selling price declined to 121 euros from 123 euros in the fourth quarter and 134 euros in the year-ago period.
Sony Ericsson estimated its market share at around 8% in the quarter, down from 9.7% in the fourth quarter. Analysts for Enskilda Securities said they believe the market share losses were steepest in Asia. Sales in the region fell 25%.
Richard Windsor, analyst at Nomura International, said the market share loss "is a result of a significant shift to the low end and weakness in high-end phones rather than a competitive attack."
He added that Sony Ericsson is disproportionately exposed to the high end and particularly in Europe, where the economic slowdown has curbed spending.
Sony Ericsson, which made its name selling upscale phones with music capabilities, has recently started expanding its low- and mid-range portfolio to increase its market share in high-growth emerging markets.
But it retains a focus on high-end phones, which explains the high R&D expenses. At the Mobile World Congress, the industry's largest annual show, in February it unveiled a new sub-brand with the XPERIA X1, a high-end multimedia phone based on the Microsoft operating system Windows Mobile.
Nokia, the world's largest maker of mobile phones, saw it shares drop 13% in a single session last week after it reported a smaller-than-expected rise in first-quarter profit and said the mobile-phone market will shrink in euro terms this year.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Motorola Shuffles its Handset Unit

18th April 2008

An internal memo distributed within Motorola has announced several changes to the how the company will organise its handsets division. The company has decided to merge two internal divisons which worked separately on its feature and its multimedia handsets into one team.
The software teams for both categories of phones will now work together with their counterparts at the the hardware and design departments. The company said that this would streamline the management reporting chains. The company said that it expects the moves will help speed up its launching of new handsets.
The company also said that Rob Shaddock has been named as the Head of Consumer Products and Bruce Brda was made Head of Worldwide Sales and Operations. Steve Lalla will head up the division focusing on entry level handsets.

Mobile browser market to grow to 1.5 billion units in 2013, says ABI Research

14 April 2008
While a large number of phones today still use browsers with very limited web browsing capabilities, many smartphones are incorporating browsers that support the latest capabilities such as AJAX and RSS, as well as websites optimized for viewing on a mobile device, according to ABI Research. The research firm sees this segment of the mobile browser market accounting for the vast majority of growth over the next five years, as the open-Internet browser (OIB) segment for mobile grows from 76 million in 2007 to nearly 700 million browsers delivered in 2013.
"The focus today for mobile browser developers is to take advantage of the latest web standards while also developing solutions tailored towards the unique experience of using a browser on a mobile phone," says research director Michael Wolf. "The most recent commercial solutions from Opera, Openwave and Access, as well as those using open source solutions such as Webkit, are targeted towards allowing consumers to access content on the web without limitations due to browser constraints."
Still, it's important to note that despite the best efforts of browser vendors and handset manufacturers, web usage on mobile devices has a significant distance to go in closing the gap with PC-based browsers. The absence of important plug-ins such as Flash on many handsets and the constraints of many phones compared to the PC mean that even OIB browser vendors such as Skyfire continue to see a need for server-assisted architectures for transcoding and web acceleration.
"There is a lot of development momentum for web content on mobile phones," adds Wolf. "The move towards web-based applications means browser and web services engines will become increasingly important for mobile, whether these are in a commercial browser implementation or a customized widget. Ultimately, the long-term trend away from native applications to web-based applications means browser and web services engines will be increasingly important components in the mobile environment."

Qualcomm expected to license production of 3.5G modules to Taiwan makers

3 April 2008
Qualcomm is expected to license the production of its 3.5G module, the Gobi, to Taiwan-based EMS companies and notebook makers, now that it has been certified by a number of telecom operators, including T-Mobile, Verizon, Vodafone and Telefonica, according to market sources in Taiwan.
Since Hewlett-Packard (HP) has decided to design-in Qualcomm's Gobi modules into its notebooks, while Dell is also likely to follow suit before long, notebooks featuring the Gobi modules are expected to hit the market in the second quarter of this year, the sources noted.
Qualcomm is expected to outsource the production of chips for Gobi modules to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) using its 65nm process technology, the sources indicated.
On the other hand, Qualcomm, as a solution vendor, is likely to team up with Taiwan-based EMS companies and notebook makers, including Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry), Quanta Computer and Wistron, for module production on a licensing basis, the sources speculated.
Global shipments of notebooks equipped with a 3.5G module are expected to top 120 million units annually in five years, Eddie Chang, president of Qualcomm Taiwan, quoted data from market research firms as indicating.

Inventec adopts Qualcomm mirasol displays for smart handheld devices

3 April 2008
Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, has announced that Inventec has chosen its MEMS-based mirasol displays for upcoming portable devices.
Inventec will incorporate mirasol displays into high-end smart handheld devices for the worldwide markets, including Europe and North America. The mirasol display will act as a secondary viewing area as a means to offload power needs from the main display. The design and functionality of the smartphone device will be revealed at a later date.
"With our focus on developing slim portable products with powerful telecommunication capabilities, mirasol displays enable low power consumption and superb viewing quality, two important needs for these products." said Kirk Suen, vice president of Inventec.
Qualcomm MEMS's mirasol displays are based on a reflective technology called interferometric modulation (IMOD), a phenomenon that mimics the mechanisms that naturally create vibrant colors in a butterfly's wings. Based on this reflective technology, mirasol displays offer low power consumption and superior viewability, even in brightly lit areas.

Symbian expanding R&D team in China

2 April 2008
Symbian, after established an R&D center in August 2007 in Beijing, is expanding its R&D team in China, with the number of staff likely to reach 160 by the end of 2008 and further increase to 250-300 in 2009, according to market sources in China.
Consumers in China accounted for about 10% of the 77.3 million Symbian smartphones shipped to consumers worldwide in 2007, making China an increasingly important market for Symbian, the sources noted.
In addition, Symbian applications developed by developers in China currently account for one out of eight Symbian applications in use worldwide, the sources added.

Global Mobile signs cooperation deal with Vietnam-based VTC

1 April 2008
Taiwan WiMAX licensee Global Mobile has signed a cooperation agreement with Vietnam Multimedia Corporation (VTC), a state-run company and a licensed WiMAX operator in Vietnam, according to sources at Global Mobile.
The deal covers cooperation over international surfing, wireless communication technologies, and digital content, said the sources, noting that Global Mobile will also act as an agent for VTC in Taiwan in the future.