What's Happening in High-Tech Supply Chains
Staff -- Purchasing, 11/17/2005
- Market researcher iSuppli has boosted its 2005 mobile-phone shipments forecast to 810 million units, which would be a 13.6% jump from 713 million in 2004. A bit more conservative is Finnish handset maker Nokia, which has ramped up it mobile phones sales outlook for 2005 but only to 780 million units.
- Orders for semiconductor equipment from North American-based manufacturers fell by $14.1 million in September to a level of $1.09 billion on a three-month moving average basis. The book-to-bill ratio declined as well, but remains above parity at 1.02.
- Strong sales of chips used in must-have consumer gadgets such as mobile telephones, MP3 players and televisions has filled the coffers of such suppliers as Texas Instruments. But, the Dallas electronics firm admits demand could drop seasonally by as much as 4% in the fourth quarter.
- Intel is developing new processor chips for server systems. The biggest computer-chip maker is delaying three future models of its high-end Itanium line of chips, plans to cancel a future model of its Xeon microprocessor line, and come out in 2007 with Tigerton. That chip will communicate better with other chips in a high-speed data pathway system.
- AMD has broadened the scope of its technology alliance with IBM to include early exploratory research of new transistor, interconnect, lithography, and die-to-package connection technologies through 2011. "By expanding our IBM alliance, we can increase our level of early-stage research, focusing on technologies for the 32nm and 22nm technology generations,"" said Craig Sander, corporate vice president of technology development at AMD.
- Worldwide PDA (personal data assistant) shipments are on track to 15 million units, which would make 2005 a record year, suggests a market report from Gartner. The previous record set in 2001 was 13.2 million units shipped.
- Personal computer shipments increased to 55 million units in the third quarter, a 17.2% increase from the third quarter of 2004, according to researcher Gartner. In the U.S. PC shipments increased 10.5% over the third quarter 2004 as 17.9 million units shipped. "Strong market growth continued to be driven by lower prices and mobility in the third quarter," says Charles Smulders, vice president of Gartner's Computing Platforms Worldwide Group.
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