Huawei/ZTE + TW Laptop Contractors + Intel's 22-nm Chip

choi

(1) Enid Tsui, Huawei and ZTE Aim to Clean up in the Smartphobe. Financial Times, Apr 24, 2012.

"Huawei, the world's second largest network equipment vendor by sales, has yet to see the same success in its handset business * * * The privately-held company yesterday released a summary of its financial report, showing a 7.7 per centage point narrowing of its operating margin to 9.1 per cent. Analysts said it was mainly dragged down by the expensive launches of its new smartphones and tablet computers.

"Huawei's mainstay carrier network business grew a mere 3 per cent last year, underscoring the need for the company to diversify. Last year, its network business generated 74 per cent of its Rmb203.9bn ($32.3bn) revenue.

"The company * * * faces formidable competition from not just the top players, but also crosstown rival ZTE.

My comment: There is no need to read the rest.

(2) Tim Culpan, IPad Onslaught Sends Taiwanese Laptop Makers to the Cloud. Bloomberg, Apr 24, 2012.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/20 ... the-cloud-tech.html

Quote:

"Sales of the iPad, cheaper and lighter than most laptops, have forced a slowdown in the [global] $233 billion PC market, pushing the assemblers to chase orders from Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc for servers and tablets

"The success of iPads and other tablets has accelerated the growth of the cloud. Unlike PCs, tablets don’t store reams of data, but rather rely on frequent access to remote servers to run their applications, stream videos and music, and tap into all manner of other data.

"Quanta, the world’s biggest laptop assembler * * * Compal, based in Taipei and lagging only Quanta in laptop assembly, is the manufacturer of Acer Inc. (2353)’s Iconia tablet. * * * Quanta also is the biggest assembler of Apple computers and laptops [excluding iPad]

Note: Quanta but not Compal is listed in the
Apple Suppliers 2011.
http://images.apple.com/supplier ... plier_List_2011.pdf

(3) Rick Merritt, Intel Exec Says Fabless Model 'Collapsing.' EETImes, Apr 24, 2012 (15 minutes ago).
http://www.eetimes.com/electroni ... -model--collapsing-

Quote:

Intel's Mark Bohr told me in an impromptu discussion at yesterday’s press event where Intel announced its Ivy Bridge CPUs made in its tri-gate 22 nm process, that TSMC "apparently cannot make at its next major node the kind of 3-D transistors needed mitigate leakage current.

"I love it when companies celebrate and provide access to their top engineers. But I hate it when they are so well trained by their PR departments.

(4) Chris Nuttall, Intel Enters Smartphone World and Moves to Defend PC Territory. Financial Times, Apr 23, 2012.

Quote:

"The first smartphone powered by Intel-designed microprocessors is going on sale, just as the world's biggest chipmaker launches a third generation of its Core product intended to defend its PC territory from mobile competitors.

"The Xolo X900 from the little-konown Lava handset maker becomes available in India from today for about Rs22,000 ($423). * * * The new phone has a single-core 32nm Atom processor. A dual-core, 22nm successor is expected this year.

"Intel is launching its new Core microprocessors today in San Francisco. codenamed Ivy Bridge, which shrink circuit widths from 32[nm] to 22nm
* * * Ivy Bridge's advances could help Intel fight off competition from mobile-phone chipmakers using Arm technology who can see a route into the PC market through Microsoft's expected release of Window 8 this year--the first Arm-compatible version of its operating system.

My comment: There is no need to read the rest.