Multinational-Corporation (MNC) PC brands have overtaken the local Indian PC brands in terms of sales, growth rates and marketing activities, says Gartner Inc. Indian branded vendors like HCL, Zenith, Wipro and PCS account for only 14 percent of the Indian desk-based PC market and six percent of the Indian mobile-PC market in 1H07. According to Gartner, only HCL has withstood the competition.

"Prices climbed slightly in several large segments of the semiconductor market, and price erosion in the memory sector slowed significantly in July as unit shipments grew, contributing to a sequential increase in worldwide chip sales," said Semiconductor Industry Association President George Scalise.

With India increasingly becoming a hub for global car makers, companies are looking to enhance their component engineering and designing capabilities to increase their share in the automotive knowledge-based business.

Why have American students been losing interest in electrical engineering? One theory is that dramatic technological advances in electronics have had the unintended consequence of making electronics less accessible to curious young minds.

Japan's chip-equipment makers are experiencing a sudden slowdown amid a lull in worldwide capital spending. In recent times, analysts have issued warnings for two bellwether fab-tool vendors in Japan: Advantest Corp. and Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL). Another vendor, Tokyo Seimitsu Co. Ltd., lowered its sales and profit forecast following a slump in the prober market.

Amid an apparent LCD crunch, there is suddenly a shortage of handsets in the U.S. market.

The apparent shortage ''is in the millions of units,'' said Matthew Hoffman, an analyst with SG Cowen Securities Corp., in a recent report.

This could very well turn out to be the making of a second Silicon Valley in the US. Over 40 IT software companies who have been jostling for space and market share in the Silicon Valley are now moving on to set up Silicon Valley-II at New Jersey and Chicago backed by the commerce ministry.

Lattoo may be a relatively poor 35-year-old mason living in a New Delhi slum, but he still typifies the reason why India's mobile phone market is the world's fastest growing.

He spends about 50 cents per day on topping up the mobile phone he acquired two months ago to keep in touch with his mother in a village in central India.

Bosch has started construction works for its new wafer fab in Reutlingen, Germany. The production will be used predominantly in automotive electronics. The fab is scheduled to launch activities in 2009. Within the next five years, the company plans to build up a capacity of about 1.000 200-mm wafers per day which equals about 1 million chips per day. The facilities will create about 800 jobs. For the new manufacturing line, Bosch plans to close down its existing production in near-by Reutlingen-Rommelsbach.

The overall client PC market in India grew 22.1 per cent, recording 1.53 million shipments in the second quarter of 2007 calendar year as against 1.25 million in the corresponding period last calendar year, market research firm IDC said.

Infineon Technologies AG, Europe's second-largest semiconductor maker, signed an agreement with Motorola Inc. to develop a 3G radio frequency chip. Financial details of the contract weren't disclosed in a statement on Infineon's Web site on Tuesday. A radio frequency transceiver is used in mobile phones to send and receive digital data.

Pure play fab Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (Migdal Haemek, Israel) is currently in talks with SemIndia Inc. and Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (HSMC), two leading proponents of Indian chip manufacturing. Talks center on the two companies also making use of Tower's manufacturing capability.

iSuppli Corp. has reduced its forecast of global IC revenue growth to 3.5 percent in 2007, down from its previous prediction of a 6 percent rise. Global semiconductor revenue now is expected to rise to $269.9 billion in 2007, up 3.5 percent from $260.6 billion in 2006. iSuppli issued its previous 6 percent annual growth forecast in June.

A Temasek Holdings (Pte) Ltd-linked company is expected to soon acquire a substantial stake in Penang-based LKT Industrial Bhd into which it would inject a substantial manufacturing business, a source said. 

The partnership covers future notebooks and mobile Internet devices, Nokia WiMax devices and Nokia Siemens' infrastructure equipment. Intel, Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks on Wednesday said they are working together to ensure interoperability across their WiMax products. Additionally, Nokia said it plans to use Intel's semiconductors, codenamed Baxter Peak, in its Nseries Internet devices scheduled to ship next year.

The Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA), the region's innovation hub for high-technology industries, has chosen Synopsys Inc.'s Professional Services and Pilot Design Environment to establish the Dubai Circuit Design (DCD) center. This center is the region's first chip design center for physical implementation of advanced ICs.

Companies that design, test, manufacture, and distribute electronic products, often referred to as Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS), have started investing in creating manufacturing assets in India.  Typically, their strength lies in large scale manufacturing and testing of printed circuit boards and they bring value to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) through economies of scale in raw materials procurement combined with expertise in industrial production and design.  The entry of EMS into India presages the growth of electronic equipment market including  communication, computer, instrumentation, medical equipment.  With India becoming an attractive marketplace for OEMs, the entry of EMS companies into India augurs well for the growth of electronic industry. 

India's mobile-phone user base is surging ahead with an estimated six million new mobile subscriptions being added each month.  By end 2008, nearly 30 percent of India's population will be covered by a mobile network.  The growing affluence, convergence of information and communication technologies, and affordability are all leading to the growth of the mobile telecommunication.  Today, India enjoys the lowest call rates in the world at an average price of 2 cents per minute, compared to average prices of 33 cents in Japan, 11 cents in Brazil, and 24 cents in Australia.  With companies passing on volume driven price reductions, the consumer demand in India for handsets and mobile subscription services further spurs manufacturing.  The biggest names in handsets are aggressively targeting India.  Nokia, with the early mover advantage, has established a big lead in India, followed by LG, Motorola, and Samsung.  India has also become the battleground for telecom equipment vendors such as Alcatel, Siemens, Lucent, and Huawei Technologies. 

The expansion of the telecom industry profoundly impacts the growth of India's electronic industry.  It spurs the growth of the semiconductor industry and the Indian State has already announced the policy initiatives to make India emerge as the semiconductor fab hub.  What we are witnessing in the country is the emergence of the electronic industry ecosystem comprising of ASIC designers, semiconductor fab facilities, embedded system design houses, testing facilities, OEMs, and such others. 

Although the growth of the electronic industry is primarily driven by a burgeoning domestic market, this growth would soon turn India into a global sourcing facility.  Chennai is clearly emerging as one among the electronic clusters.  Nokia has set up a Telecom Park at Chennai, which has brought together several global manufacturers such as Salcomp, Aspocomp, Foxconn, Perlos, Laird, Jabil, and Wintek. 

While some countries in Asia, such as Taiwan and Korea leveraged the growth of electronic industry for boosting their economies, in India it is the growth of the country's economy that spurs the industry's expansion.  With India's increasing affluence, the demand for electronic equipment would escalate which in turn would attract manufacturing companies to create design, testing, and production assets.

Because India has become a fast-growing region for the electronics assembly industry and is host to many of Asymtek's existing customers, Asymtek established the new facility to support the area's expanding markets and offer local support. The new office is co-located with parent company Nordson Corporation, and provides on-site equipment service, training and applications assistance.

Videocon Industries Ltd is planning to set up a semiconductor and LCD complex near Mumbai. The company has sought 200 hectares from the Maharashtra Government for the project, which is estimated to entail an investment of Rs 8,000 crore.