Electronic Business articles from April 2001

Electronic Business archives from April 2001

Optical telecom: 'Mature market' rewards innovation, commitment.(Industry Trend or Event)
April 1, 2001... Late last year, many hot, new optical telecom components and systems companies hit a downturn, losing an average of 25% of their value--and some pundits claimed another technology bubble--in addition to the dot-com bubble--had burst. But in...

Chip makers are sharply curtailing expansion plans for 2001.(Industry Trend or Event)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Order ennui is continuing to plague the semiconductor equipment industry. The composite book-to-bill ratio for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers declined for the fifth consecutive month during January 2001. Chip...

Hurry up and wait.(Industry Trend or Event)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... Returns on venture investments drop for third consecutive quarter The cold wind that began blowing in the middle of last year still carries a distinct chill for venture investors. Returns on U.S. venture capital investments declined for...

Kinks in the chain.(Industry Trend or Event)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... The financial supply chain isn't all it could be The materials supply chain--developed to streamline processes and save transaction costs between suppliers and customers--can teach a thing or two to financial management, one analyst...

Hang on--the ride's not over.(Industry Trend or Event)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... The roller coaster ride that the economy has been on doesn't seem like it will let up any time soon. Purchasing managers are hoping that the economy will improve over the next 60 days, but have their fingers crossed. Many businesses are looking...

Weak links.(Industry Trend or Event)
April 1, 2001... Supply-chain tools are no inventory nirvana Call it a Bronx cheer for supply-chain technology. The current economic downturn, suggested Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan at a mid-February briefing on Capitol Hill, would be much worse...

Inventory may burn while 'buts' remain.(Industry Trend or Event)
April 1, 2001... If anything, the current industry downturn is marked by confusion--it doesn't seem to be following any prior pattern. As a result, few are willing to predict when it might end. But as the leading information broker between electronics...

Entertaining the chip industry.(Industry Trend or Event)
April 1, 2001... DVD players will continue to boost chip sales They don't need rewinding, they're smaller than a videocassette tape, they provide superior picture and sound quality and almost no premium PC comes without one. They're DVD players, and...

What you can't see might help you.(Industry Trend or Event)
April 1, 2001... Micro-sized machines finally put into production Good things really do come in small packages. A 20-year-old technology, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), has finally reached the consumer electronics market, according to the Cahners...

The last frontier.(Company Business and Marketing)
April 1, 2001... A bold Texan orchestrates a new chip-test outsourcing business By the time Joe David Jones had earned his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Texas, he had already toiled on two Lone Star State wafer lines. One...

The HP Way.(People)
April 1, 2001... Let's not forget the essence of Bill Hewlett When Bill Hewlett died Jan. 12 at age 87 he left a legacy of business, philanthropic and civic accomplishments unmatched by anyone in his generation other than his life-long partner, David...

Focused foundries.(Company Business and Marketing)
April 1, 2001... Communicant hopes to ride specialty wave Anyone with a few billion dollars, it seems, can launch a semiconductor foundry. But as the market matures and the field becomes more crowded, success by a newcomer may largely depend on...

An ounce of prevention.(Industry Trend or Event)
April 1, 2001... How to protect yourself from "disappointment litigation" Promises made but not kept can come back to haunt you. That bit of conventional wisdom has come too late for many companies in the New Economy. In their rush to attract high-tech's...

IN PURSUIT OF THE HOLY INTEGRATED CHIP.(Company Business and Marketing)
April 1, 2001... CEO Wen-chi Chen has faith to guide "God's company," but VIA Technologies also has some powerful friends closer to home WEN-CHI CHEN is a born-again Christian, and he's not shy about it in any setting. In fact, it's the first thing the...

Myth vs. REALITY.(Industry Trend or Event)
April 1, 2001... Success during a difficult year comes from the old realities of time, discipline, courage and passion Meet Nav Sooch, myth buster. Sooch is CEO of Silicon Laboratories Inc., Austin, TX, a five-year-old, fabless semiconductor company that...

DSL DEBACLE.(Industry Trend or Event)
April 1, 2001... A year ago, independent DSL service providers were riding high. Now they're struggling just to survive NorthPoint Communications Group Inc., during its 1999 heyday, was rolling out high-speed digital subscriber line (DSL) Internet-access...

WHO'S DEMANDING DEMAND CREATION?(Industry Trend or Event)
April 1, 2001... Customers like it, suppliers demand it, but the channel finds it tough to make a buck STEVE CHURCH, president of Phoenix-based Avnet Inc.'s Electronics Marketing Americas, isn't taking the bait. He might be a master diplomat, but like...

Nurture YOUR NICHE.(Industry Trend or Event)
April 1, 2001... Successful vendors in the ever-changing DSP market have learned to cultivate the most promising niches and resist being all things of all customers GRAHAM DODGSON has big dreams, and he's got a marketing pitch to back it up. He says his...

A safe bet: The PC's not finished.(Technology Information)(Column)
April 1, 2001... As consumers find that current PC models do the job, and last for years, the market is going to flatten from time to time and even dip--sometimes precipitously Just because sales of desktop computers have finally flattened out for the...

CORRECTION.(Correction Notice)
April 1, 2001... In the March 2001 story, "Lending some Credence to the results," page 72, the sentence discussing Credence's plan to be the No. 2 player in its market should have read: "The No. 1 strategic directive for the company was to become the No. 2...

Carving through business bumps.(Industry Trend or Event)
April 1, 2001... Through the middle of last year, high-tech executives were fretting over a myriad of issues, including the difficulties of hiring and retaining workers, part-supply constraints, managing growth and making sense of Wall Street's overvaluation of...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2001... MAKE IT SIMPLE, STUPID Thank you, thank you. As much as your magazine's fine and timely articles make excellent reading, your editorial note, "Ease of use is no laughing matter" [February 2001, page 6], hit home. I believe the "rut" you...

AMD: Successfully kicking a giant in the shins.(Company Business and Marketing)
April 1, 2001... Last month, I described how Apple Computer Inc. nearly killed itself in the 1990s by trying to compete directly with mainstream PC makers. The company was saved only when Steve Jobs returned Apple to its previous strategy of continuous...