Tear Down Of The Storm Shows It Cost $202 To Build

January 29, 2009

The new Blackberry Storm costs Research in Motion $202.89 to build, according to an iSuppli tear down of the phone.

The Storm represents a win for Qualcomm

The Storm represents a win for Qualcomm

The phone is the first from RIM with a touch-screen display and sells for $249.99 with a $50 rebate from Verizon, illustrating how wireless carriers subsidize handsets.

The Storm, for the most part, matches up with Apple’s iPhone 3G. Its touch-screen is made possible with a $15.50 capacitive touch-screen overlay from Synaptics, iSuppli said Thursday.

Yet, “RIM has added a special differentiating feature from the iPhone: the ‘clickable’ screen. The one thing that existing touchscreens lack is the feedback mechanism users get from a conventional keyboard that clicks when a key is depressed, letting you know quickly that your choice has been registered,” said Andrew Rassweiler, principal analyst.

However, it doesn’t have multi-touch technology.

“The Storm uses a simple physical button under the primary touch-screen to serve to provide haptic feedback,” says Senior Analyst Tina Teng. “This allows one physical key press at a time, meaning there is no double-tapping capability with the Storm.”

The phone represents a big win for Qualcomm. RIM uses a $34.82 Qualcomm baseband processor for the first time. RIM has used Marvel chips in the past.

Also in the handset are an $11.50, 8 GB MicroSD memory card from SanDisk and a $7.50 8 GB multi-level cell memory chip package from Samsung Electronics.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

LED Chips To Defy Semiconductor Market And Rise This Year

January 20, 2009

The semiconductor market is forecast to decline 9.4 percent this year, but LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, may dance to a different tune.

LEDs to see increasing use in TVs

LEDs to see increasing use in TVs

Sales of these light-emitting chips used in lighting products and increasingly in television and laptop screens are expected to rise 2,9 percent in 2009, says iSuppli.

This is a “highly unusual item in our semiconductor forecast, given that almost all other components will suffer revenue contractions in 2009,” said Dale Ford, senior vice president.

One source of growth will be the LCD television market, where sales could rise 222 percent. LEDs help illuminate the display.

At the Consumer Electronics Show, for instance, several manufacturers, including Sony and Samsung, showed off premium LED-equipped sets. Some of the TVs are anticipated to be in the market by mid year.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Acer Closing In On Dell In The PC Market As Apple Slips

December 23, 2008

Capitalizing on the consumer interest in cheap laptops, or netbooks, Acer outgrew many of its peers in the third quarter and closed in on Dell for the number two slot in the PC market.

Netbooks helped fuel Acers growth

Netbooks helped fuel Acer's growth

In the loss column, Apple’s market share slipped almost half a point. The company held 3.2 percent of the global market at quarter’s end, according to iSuppli.

Acer’s shipments in the quarter rose 79 percent to 9.7 million, with 3 million of them notebooks, iSuppli said. The majority of the notebooks, were netbooks.

That left Acer trailing Dell by less than 2 percentage points and claiming 12.2 percent of the market. Dell held onto a 13.9 share, with 11 million shipments. Hewlett-Packard is the number one PC maker.

ISuupli sees 4.3 percent growth in the PC market next year.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Notebooks Outpace Desktop PCs For First Time In Third Quarter

December 23, 2008

Marking a milestone in the history of computing, vendors shipped more notebook computers in the third quarter than they did desktop machines.

Notebook shipments up 40% in third quarter

Notebook shipments up 40% in third quarter

The momentum has been increasing behind notebooks for several years. So the crossover was not a surprise, said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst at iSuppli. The notebook is no longer a tool for the business workers; it is “a computer for everyman,” Wilkins said.

According to iSuppli, notebook shipments rose nearly 40 percent to reach 38.6 million units. Desktop shipments declined by 1.3 percent to 38.5 million.

The popularity of notebooks increased noticeably with the advent of wireless Wi-Fi connections and the ability of companies, such as Intel, to put more powerful chips into the compact package required for these mobile computers. Battery life also improved as processors became more efficient and computer design changed to cut wasted energy.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Solar Market Won’t Shine In 2009; Revenue To Fall For 1st Time In 8 Years

December 22, 2008

Global revenue from photovoltaic panels will fall 19 percent in 2009, bringing to an end eight years of growth.

Solar production up 62% in 2008

Solar production up 62% in 2008

A massive oversupply of the products is the culprit, causing prices to plunge, says iSuppli.

Revenue from panel sales should hit $12,9 billion, compared with $15.9 billion in 2008. A drop this large has not occurred in 10 years, the market researcher said.

The decline will come even as the installation of solar panels increases by 9.6 percent in the year to 4.2 GW of capacity. The trouble is 11.1 GW worth of panels will be made in 2009, illustrating the imbalance between production and use.  Production is up rise by 62 percent from 2008.

Supply and demand were already out of balance in 2008, when 100 percent more modules were made than installed, said Principal Analyst Henning Wicht.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

More Bad News For PC Suppliers; Quarterly Forecast For Disk Drives Cut Sharply With Downbeat Outlook For 2009

December 3, 2008

The disk drive market could shrink in the fourth quarter by as much as 10 percent due to the weak sales of personal computers, said market monitor iSuppli.

Next years disk drive market could rise only 4.3%

Next year's disk drive market could rise only 4.3%

The research firm said it lowered its outlook for the market amid what it sees as rapidly changing demand for electronic components. Disk-drive shipments could be flat with shipments of 158 million units in the third quarter.

Or they could tumble to 149 million units, off 10 percent. The firm had predicted in September that drive sales could climb 5 percent.

ISuppli also cut its outlook for next year saying the market uncertainty is even greater for the period. Shipments could grow between 6.8 percent and 4.3 percent, a significant weakening from the 14 or so percent growth expected for all of 2008.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Outlook For Personal Computer Market Slashed

November 20, 2008

The PC market will grow only 4.3 percent in 2009 – an outlook iSuppli said Wednesday it cut by nearly two-third.

The research firm had previously forecast 11.9 percent worldwide growth in shipments. The global economic landscape has changed dramatically and financial turmoil means there is less money to spend on computers, said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst.

ISuppli said it sees desktop PC shipments declining about 5 percent and notebooks growing about 15 percent.

The firm also sees growth resuming in 2010. It projects the market will be up 7.1 percent. It had previously anticipated 2010 growth of 9.4 percent.

The market had shown annual growth of about 10 percent over the past five years.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

HDTV Market Set To Double In Size In Four Years

October 22, 2008
HDTV market set to double in size

HDTV market set to double in size

Consumer fascination with high-definition televisions will continue to gain steam over the next four years with the market nearly doubling in size.

Research firm iSuppli projects that 241.1 million of these sharp-screen sets will be shipped in 2012, up from 124.2 million this year.

Sales also should largely defy the economic slowdown, climbing 28 percent this year and 24 percent next year, said iSuppli on Wednesday.

At the same time, the standard televsion market should decline by 27 percent a year over the period to less than a quarter of its present size.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

[iSuppli Briefing] Electronics Industry Better Prepared for Market Change (video)

October 8, 2008
Lloyd Kaplan, COO, iSuppli

Lloyd Kaplan, COO, iSuppli

Speaking at the iSuppli North American Briefing this morning in San Jose, Calif., the company’s COO, Lloyd Kaplan commented on how the electronics value chain has matured with low excess inventories, “a leading indicator of inflection point”, and a concentration of capital investment (CAPEX).

“The electronics value chain is much better positioned this time if we look at things like excess inventory… in reduction for the last 4 quarters. We’ve seen consolidation in CAPEX: 65% of all CAPEX comes from memory. With the memory market slows down in the beginning of the year, they all reduced their CAPEX. Now you see even more of the CAPEX coming from foundries and less from integrated device manufacturers… That plays to the maturity of our industry. And when we do have those bubbles… if there is excess inventories or capacity because of the demand-driven slowdown… it will work through the system pretty quickly”.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by TechPulse 360

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