Samsung selling more phones than Nokia
Samsung's plans for global dominance in the mobile phone world look like coming to fruition as it has finally leapfrogged Nokia - at the top of one chart at least. The Korean firm has now sold more featurephones (ie those that just provide the basic phoning/texting functions with a wee bit o' web thrown in) than Nokia in Western Europe, with 12.2 million in Q1 alone, according to research firm IDC. Nokia saw its sales slide by 18 per cent, down to 9.1 million units, as the Finnish manufacturer struggles to match its lustre of the early part of the century.
TechRadar
Europe leads with mobile broadband connexions
Recent research from Berg Insight claims that mobile broadband subscribers (or HSPA/LTE connected PCs as it claims) accounted for 17.3 per cent of all broadband connections in Europe by Q1 2010. Given that there are virtually no LTE terminals out there at present and HSPA is still not the majority this is a pretty intriguing figure.You’d have to wonder what the figure would be if HSPDA and 3G only devices were included. Or perhaps, they are? But it is an interesting trend, nonetheless.The attach rate of embedded mobile broadband in notebooks was less than 5 per cent in both Europe and North America last year, says Marcus Persson, telecom analyst with Berg Insight. This will change as prices for the embedded modules decrease and an attach rate of almost 45 per cent is expected within 5 years.
GoMo News
Juniper predicts $7bn mobile TV revenues by 2015
Apps that stream video over Wi-Fi networks will help boost mobile TV revenues to nearly $7 billion in 2015, predicts Juniper Research's latest report.It suggests that mobile TV traffic over Wi-Fi will increase by 25 times between now and then, thanks also to the continuing popularity of smartphones.Author Dr. Windsor Holden still thinks that operators will face challenges in coping for the demand for mobile TV over 3G and 3.5G though."Cellular networks are finding it increasingly difficult to deliver high quality mobile TV services at times of peak usage: thus, the World Cup has posed particular problems with large spikes in viewing figures," he says.
Mobile Entertainment
Intel smartphones to debut in 2011
The 2011 Consumer Electronics Show is likely to be the first showcase for mobile phones powered by new Intel chips. Although the company has already show-cased a chip codenamed Moorestown, CTO Justin Rattner told Wired.com that the January show would clearly be the window of opportunity for us. Intel’s absence from the smartphone market is in stark contrast to the company’s dominance of the desktop and laptop PC market. It is, however, establishing a position in the burgeoning tablet computer category. Rattner cited the number of tablet’s shown at Taiwan’s recent Computex event that were based on Intel chips.
The Telegraph
Semi Industry 'Mad' Not To Raise Prices
The semiconductor industry is engaging in ‘business, economic and industry madness’ by not hiking its prices, according to Europe’s leading semiconductor analyst, Malcolm Penn, CEO of Future Horizons, in the company’s June market report. ‘The industry is now in the full flood of a classic market boom’, says the report, ‘order books are full, customers are building stocks, double ordering is rife, capacity is strained, lead times increasing and deliveries are stretched. Yet, memory aside, all other segment ASPs are still falling!’
Electronics Weekly
Motorola moves closer to mobile split
Motorola has taken a further step to separating its mobile phone business out into a new company headed by CEO and former Qualcomm executive, Sanjay Jha. Motorola has filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), stating that the Mobile Devices and Home businesses will be separated from Motorola and operate under the name - Motorola Mobility. Motorola also announced it will change its name from Motorola to Motorola Solutions.
Electronics Weekly
New method creating super-thin metal lines will speed up miniaturisation of electronic devices
Scientists from Singapore A*STAR’s Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), the University of Cambridge (UK) and Sungkyunkwan University (South Korea) have created metallic lines so thin and smooth that they can only be seen using powerful electron microscopes. This research will be published in the July issue of Advanced Functional Materials, the leading full-paper materials science journal. At line widths of just 7 nm, their line width roughness , which are the variations in thickness along the line itself, stands at 2.9 nm, a value which is below the 2010 target of 3.2 nm and closer to 2011’s target line width roughness of 2.8 nm indicated in the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors.
Components in Electronics
Global chip sales beat expectations - again
The three-month average of global sales of semiconductors for May was $25.65 billion, up 4.5 percent compared with the previous month and up 47.6 percent compared with the same month a year before, according to the European Semiconductor Industry Association (ESIA). The averaged figure has come in ahead of analysts' expectations and was a record high value for the third month running.
EE Times Europe
Cell phone RFID reader chip uses NFC technology for disposable wireless sensors
GENTAG, Inc. has reported the successful testing of the new NXP cell phone RFID reader chip in combination with its proprietary disposable RFID sensor platform which opens global consumer markets for disposable, wireless sensors using NFC-enabled cell phones. "Cell phones that integrate NFC (Near Field Communication) technology with the newest RFID reader chip from NXP will also be able to read our disposable RFID sensors," reported Dr. John P. Peeters, the founder and CEO of GENTAG. "GENTAG and its partners have successfully resolved the complex technical issues of adapting a technology meant to read unique IDs to also be used for any sensor application, including analog sensors."
EE Times Europe
Study claims hydroelectric dams hurt climate more than oil
Hydroelectric power is normally listed in the same breath as solar, wind and wave as a world-saving renewable energy source. But a study from Brazil's National Institute for Research in the Amazon claims that it could be considerably more damaging to the atmosphere than generating the same amount of energy from oil. The study, which is due to be published in Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, asserts that Hydroelectric's "green" image is false and that traditional dam-based hydroelectric power generation systems could be releasing significant amounts of methane into the environment, thanks to the rotting vegetation submerged when the reservoir floods.
Wired
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