Opinion: 3-D TV can't make your kids sick. . . can it?

3-step plan to prevent a potential 3-D disaster

NEW YORK — "Is my 3-D TV going to be safe?"

This is the last question anyone in the consumer electronics industry wants to hear right now — especially as the industry's fortunes for the next few years seem to be riding on a wide-range of 3-D-this, 3-D-that gadgets that are aimed directly down consumers' throats.

Nonetheless, Samsung has begged that unwanted question by posting a 3-D TV health hazards warning on its Australian website.

It's not entirely clear why Samsung is only posting a 3-D TV warning in Australia. But every new Samsung 3-D TV set -- sold today anywhere in the world, the United States included -- bears the very same health hazards warning, according to Chris Chinnock, President of Insight Media.

Call me naive, but I couldn't help wondering why such warnings are popping up now. After all, sales of 3-D Blu-ray and 3-D TV are already out of the barn.

If someone already knew of the even remote possibilities that 3-D TV viewing could cause an epileptic seizure, why push 3-D TV so hurriedly to the mass market? More important, how does this sort of warning guide your typical soccer mom contemplating the purchase of a 3-D TV for her kids this fall? Does she swear off 3-D forever, or does she merely put her local seizure clinic on speed-dial?

Insight Media's Chinnock suspects that this is a Samsung's "CYA (cover your ass) move." It's entirely possible that someone could sue Samsung in the future, claiming that 3-D TV made him pitch a fit. As a vendor, "you have to think of every possible scenario, and be prepared to say that you are not liable," said Chinnock.

Proving a negative

OK. So, is the 3-D industry saying that the verbiage on the TV box is all legalese that bears little relationship to any actual consumer health issue?

Not exactly. "It's a tough one," said Chinnock. "There has not been enough research out there" to prove or disprove the case for 3-D TV health hazards.

When I was talking to Koji Hase, president of worldwide consumer electronics at Real D six months ago, he pointed out that not a single health problem has been reported among hundreds of professionals who've been working, many years, in an environment where similar visual 3-D tools are used.

The problem in any science, though, is that proving a negative is always much more difficult than proving a positive.

But first, let's step back a little.

One thing Chinnock made clear, and it did make sense to me, was that "in almost all cases, factors that influence eye strain, nausea or headache in 3-D viewing are neither 3-D displays nor 3-D glasses. But they are [related to] content creation, post-production and mastering processes used in 3-D video production."

In other words, anyone serious about promoting 3-D has to take some precautions —especially on the front-end of 3-D content creation.

Obviously, individuals have different tolerances for the varying degrees of 3-Dness in video. When human frailties and the expansions of artistic creativity are both taken into consideration, making hard and fast rules about 3-D movie production specs won't be easy.

However, Chinnock insisted, "I have a few good ideas that I think we can move things forward." Calling it a three-step plan, Chinnock laid out the following:

Step 1: Identify all the factors that influence eye strain, nausea and other discomforts. Such factors include: alignment of imaging, vertical and horizontal misalignment, color differences, luminance differences, the amount of parallax, fast scene cuts, etc. Chinnock said, "Cutting from scene to scene, quickly moving from front to back and back to front in 3-D, for example, can only slam your eye balls back and forth."

Step 2: Identify safe parameters and safe ranges. Keep color mismatches or image misalignments to a tolerable level; set parameters and ranges to create "safe zones."

Step 3: Write guidelines and best practices for content creation and post-processing. Then, set up a rating system that can automatically record various factors in a 3-D movie — such as a depth transition and its duration — and note how often such factors venture beyond the so-called "safe zones." Because everyone has a different personal taste and tolerance for different levels of 3-D video, it's only natural to expect a number of commercial enterprises to pop up and offer different 3-D ratings in the future, predicted Chinnock.

This is not a bad plan, but how close are we to actually setting up any rating system?

Unfortunately, not very. Those in different 3-D industry consortiums appear to support the idea, said Chinnock, but "it takes the industry's leadership to unify these concepts and codify the system."

Chinnock said, "There will be bad 3-D movies. It's going to happen."

The way to prevent a potential 3-D disaster is not just stamping a list of 3-D health hazards on a carton. The industry needs to give content producers tools, while offering consumers rating systems to recognize the intensity of the 3-D experience they are about to watch. Junko Yoshida(04/20/2010 1:52 PM EDT)

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Engineer's suicide throws light on iPhone mania

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A 25-year old engineer working for a company that assembles Apple iPhones reportedly took his life last week after losing a prototype of a future Apple handset. Sun Danyong of Hon Hai Precision Co. Ltd. in Shenzhen, China, jumped from his twelfth floor apartment building after reporting the incident and being questioned by company security officials, reports said.

The Daily Tech reported the story on Tuesday. Since then many other news outlets have followed suit including a report in today's Wall Street Journal.

Hon Hai has suspended the security official who questioned Sun, and China officials are investigating the incident according to reports. Hon Hai is a branch of Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group. Both Foxconn and Apple officials expressed regret over the suicide.

The incident throws a spotlight on the tensions between the heavy cloak of secrecy Apple Inc. maintains around its unannounced products and the intense drive from competitors and the media to get early access to the specifications of those products.

"The real fear in losing a prototype is massive amount of counterfeiting and reverse engineering that goes on in China," said Allan Yogasingam, a technology analyst at Semiconductor Insights (Ottawa), a sister division of EE Times.

Yogasingam obtained handsets that attempted to mimic the Apple iPhone as much as two months before the original iPhone was released. He wrote an analysis and gave presentations on several of the designs within weeks of the iPhone launch.

"Some of these clones were designed simply based upon images of the iPhone these companies found on the Internet," Yogasingam said. "If they were to get their hands on a prototype of the iPhone, they could make an almost identical handset with cheaper parts that could severely damage Apple's sales," he added.

Apple is well known for keeping a tight lock on its partners regarding components used in its products, even after product teardowns have made those details a matter of public record. For example, the former chief executive of Infineon refused to comment on the use of his company's baseband chips in the original iPhone, even months after the handset had shipped and its contents had been publically reported by teardown services.

News about what chips Apple uses is highly coveted. Prior to some Apple iPhone launches, media companies have flown journalists to countries that would be the first to open retail outlets so they would have a few hours lead in tearing down handsets and posting details to their Web sites.

The Hon Hai engineer's suicide would not be the first in a situation involving an individual in China seen to fail his company. Executives involved in scandals that found lead paint used on toys made in China also took their lives. Rick Merritt(07/23/2009 3:09 PM EDT)

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Bad News: Corning Cutting 3,500 Jobs; Good News: Cheaper TVs

from GigaOM by Om Malik

 Corning, the company that makes the key component (glass) for LCD and plasma screens, today posted its fourth-quarter 2008 results, which included revenues of $1.1 billion and earnings per share of 13 cents, much lower than what Wall Street was expecting. Telecommunications segment sales — the company makes optical fiber, amongst other things — came in at $405 million, down 18 percent sequentially. For those reasons, Corning says it will cut 3,500 jobs, or 13 percent of its work force, by the end of the year. Blame it on a 35 percent decline in LCD volumes that are likely to fall by another 20-25 percent in the first quarter of 2009. Corning sees a further decline in LCD prices — good news to anyone who has money to spend on a big-screen TV. Now’s the time to negotiate for even further discounts, for every manufacturer is trying to clean out their excess TV inventories.

The Rebirth of "Web TV"

from ReadWriteWeb by Sarah Perez

One of the most apparent trends from this month's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), was the proliferation of flat panel, internet-connected TVs. Nearly every major television manufacturer was demonstrating some sort of web-to-TV integration, including sets that offered Yahoo widgets, MySpace social networking, and Netflix built directly into the TV sets themselves. This isn't the "Web TV" of days past, but a whole new way to internet-enable the living room. This is the year of the "connected TV."

This Isn't Your Parents' Web TV

Remember Web TV? It's still around, believe it or not, now rebranded as MSN TV. With a set-top box and keyboard, you can browse the web from the comfort of your couch. For whatever reason, it didn't take off. From personal experience at, after some initial oohs and aahs, our household quickly grew bored with our Web TV box. If you used the service, too, you probably felt the same.

Why didn't it work? Perhaps people didn't really want to use a keyboard in their living room. Or perhaps it just launched too soon. Its heyday was in the 1990's, a time when there wasn't as much compelling content to view. This was long before the launch of sites like YouTube and Hulu. Because of this and more, Web TV never became the revolution that it intended to be.

But today we're seeing a new attempt to revive the the goal of bringing the "internet to your living room." Instead of Web TV, what we're seeing instead are televisions being dubbed "connected TVs."

The New Connected TV

Sans set-top box, these new "connected" TVs have all the web-enabling components built right in. This apparently is what will be the reason for their success this time around...if you believe the hype.

One of the better integrations involves Netflix's deal with Korea's LG Electronics, Inc.Their partnership which will deliver a new line of high-def TVs with the Netflix service built directly into the set itself. With 12,000 titles to choose from at launch, this connected TV is one that's sure to become quite popular if the company can get the pricing right.

Other TV manufacturers including Samsung, Sony, LG, and VIZIO introduced sets with Yahoo widget technology integrated into their products. These widgets don't just provide Yahoo content like Sports and News, but rather deliver a platform on which widgets can be built. Says Yahoo, their platform allows developers to extend their "brand, services, and content" to new users by creating TV widgets using Yahoo's Widget Engine.

Yahoo Widget Engine, Now for the TV

The Yahoo Widget Engine evolved from the Konfabulator platform, a product that delivered some of the very first web-enabled apps that floated on your computer's desktop. These widgets give you quick access to information and news which you can see without having to keep a browser window open.

Now those same web-enabled widgets can be ported over to digital TVs. The Widget Engine provides an entry-level framework and Widget Development Kit (WDK) which allows developers to code for the constrained hardware capabilities of these new connected TVs. In addition, Yahoo's Widget Channel API will provide access to internet technologies including Konfabulator's JavaScript and XML as well as HTML.

There are already a few Yahoo! TV widgets available now and several more have been announced ascoming soon. In the upcoming section, widgets from Showtime, Netflix, Blockbuster on Demand, CinemaNow, The New York Times, USA Today Sports, CBS Fantasy Football, Rallypoint Fantasy Sports, Acedo Funspot Games, Flickr, and, of course, Yahoo (News, Weather, Finance, and Video), have been announced.

Twitter from Your TV

Lest we forgot: there will also be a Twitter widget available. That widget alone could usher in a whole new area of interactive television. As we've already seen on channels like CNN, some reporters are currently using Twitter to gather real-time information about events from TV viewers. Imagine how many more people could participate if Twitter was enabled on the television itself. Outside of news, other shows could potentially use Twitter for entertainment purposes, enabling a live back channel where you could Twitter your thoughts or questions about the content you were viewing.

MySpace Brings Social Networking to the TV

Among the widgets available today, Yahoo has announced an eBay widget, a CBS Entertainment widget, and a MySpace widget. It's the MySpace one that's garnered the most press so far as it will enable two-way interaction with the social network and your friends while watching TV.

MySpace widget users will be able to receive dynamic updates from friends, read and respond to messages, browse friends' profiles, photos, and requests, and see status and mood updates. It takes the solitary act of watching TV and turns it into what could be a more social experience. It's easy to imagine groups of friends watching shows together, messaging each other throughout the viewing.

The MySpace widget, like several others, will be ad-supported. That raises the question if these new widgets could become a source of advertising revenue for content producers. As more people time shift TV shows for later viewing, skipping through the commercials with their remote, TV shows' advertising revenues have been affected. Now, TV networks could easily create and deliver widgets for their most popular shows, letting fans interact with each other whenever they watched, as they do on the numerous forum-like TV message boards found across the internet today.

Of course, we could be getting ahead of ourselves here with that last idea - nothing of the sort has been announced. Still, we think it would be a great idea. (Who wouldn't want to join a live backchannel of ABC's "Lost", for example? What is that smoke monster?)

Will Connected TVs Succeed?

Will the new internet-connected TVs work where Web TV failed? It's possible. For one thing, this time we're not just transplanting the internet in its entirety to the living room, where many people already stash their netbooks and notebooks for the quick Google search or email check during their TV viewing.

Instead, the TV experience is simply being enhanced by the web-enabled technologies - which you can choose to use or not use as you wish. If you're just relaxing, you may want to just enjoy the normal passive TV experience. But for certain events - favorite shows, sports, breaking news - you may choose to interact with others via the widgets over social media like MySpace and Twitter. Other widgets like News and Entertainment listings will also be convenient ways to get bite-sized information without having to pull out the computer.

The key point here with these new connected TVs is that the widgets don't interrupt what people think of as the "TV experience." Explains Genevieve Bell, an anthropologist and director of the user experience group in Intel's digital-home group, people have extremely strong bonds to their TV sets. "Any effort to add internet content needs to be just as simple and not interfere with the experiences and behavior patterns the users enjoy." What that means, she says, is that the interaction needs to take place using a conventional remote control - not a computer keyboard or on-screen web browser.

The only question that remains is whether people will buy a new TV just for the widgets? Probably not. This is a fun addition, but not a major technology breakthrough like HDTV. Still, if you're out shopping for a new TV anyway, a connected TV may certainly make your list as one of the sets to consider.

Live from Palm's CES press conference

Joshua Topolsky, posted Jan 8th 2009 at 2:01PM

12:09PM And that's that! Keep your eyes peeled -- we will have a lot more on this later. (Full Coverage)

Exclusive: New Palm Phone to Have Slide-down Keyboard, Large Touchscreen

 We have information from a trusted source that the latest Palm smartphone running the Nova operating system will be launched Thursday. The new phone will have a full QWERTY keyboard that will slide down under a portrait-oriented touchscreen. This only a mock-up based on information received. The new operating system is described as "amazing" and there will be a full software bazaar on launch. It will have media playback functions along with standard Palm calendar, email, and contact functionality.

Apple buys a little Imagination -- 3.6 percent to be exact

from Engadget by Tim Stevens

It's been a busy couple of months for the mobile PowerVR gurus at Imagination Technologies. First the company got picked to handle the polygon-shuffling duties in Sony's PSP2 (which may or may not be actually happening), and has now received a $5 million cash infusion from Apple -- in exchange for a measly 3.6 percent of its soul. What does it all mean? As much as we'd love to fling out crazy speculation about an Apple / Sony hybrid iPSP or hardware support for a mobile 3D operating system, we're putting our money on the most sensible explanation: a next-gen iPhone witheven more emphasis on games. Place your bets now, folks.

Sony’s eBook reader - the numbers are in

Sony’s eBook reader - the numbers are in

from last100 by Steve O'Hear

While Amazon remains deafeningly silent over how many Kindles it has sold - except to say that new orders won’t be fulfilled for the next eleven to thirteen weeks - Sony, its main competitor in the eBook reader space, isn’t being so shy.

Claiming to have exceeded the company’s own forecasts, Sony says it sold 300,000 units of its Sony Reader device since its October 2006 launch (WSJ). Interestingly, however, Forrester Research estimates that 400,000 Kindles have sold since its launch in November 2007, which, if true, means that Amazon has done considerably better in a much shorter amount of time, possibly due to better marketing — it’s hard to beat the Amazon brand and e-store when it comes to selling anything book-related.

Although both sets of numbers are nothing to be scoffed at, it doesn’t yet amount to an ‘iPod moment’, notes paidContent. Apple sold 1.3 million units of its music player in the first two years, even if it took considerably longer for the iPod to really go mainstream.

Apple's in-ear headphones finally, really available now

from Engadget by Laura June

Remember those new in-ear headphones we heard about from Mr. Jobs himself back in September? Well, he promised them for October (see the giant slide behind him), and here we are, in December, and they've finally appeared. Each earbud's got its own woofer and tweeter, so be prepared forMaster of Puppets to sound better than ever. They've got a built-in remote and mic -- yet curiously aren't compatible with the iPhone -- and they come with three sets of interchangeable silicone tips for small, medium, and large ears. Are you rocked to the very core of your existence yet? Well, the $79 price tag should finish the job.

dmedia G400 with WiMAX: MID or PND?

dmedia G400 with WiMAX: MID or PND?

from Engadget by Laura June

Apparently the dmedia G400 MID was announced at the WiMAX Expo in Taipei back in June, but this is the first we've seen of it, and solid information is still a little hard to come by. The device will boast a 800 x 400 touchscreen, WiMAX, HSDPA / WCDMA, and GPS radios, a microSD slot, and will come in both 3.8-inch and 4.3-inch configurations. From what we could glean, the system with run atop a SiRFprima CPU, though we haven't seen a lot (say, any) of MIDs using those chips. So, is this actually just a glorified PND? It's hard to say, but we hear the units will hit retail sometime in the beginning of 2009, though we don't know how much they'll cost or where they'll be available. 

Amazon's Give 1, Get 1 OLPC XO program now live

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

You know the drill: for $399 you buy one OLPC XO laptop and a second is sent to a child somewhere in the developing world. Same deal as last year only now with the help of Amazon's powerful retail reach. Devices begin shipping in about 30 days -- a bit longer outside the US. Naturally you can also just gift the $199 laptop direct to a kid of OLPC's choosing. About the quickest way to become a donor short of meeting a hotel stranger in possession of roofies and a bathtub full of ice. 

Apricot Computers relaunches as Netbook maker

Apricot Computers relaunches as Netbook maker

from last100 by Steve O'Hear, editor

What is it about 80’s computing icons making a comeback as a Netbook maker? First, the relaunch of the Commodore brand - if by name only - with the catchy titled UMMD 8010/F. And now it’s the turn of Apricot Computers who, after being left dormant for years by former owner Mitsubishi Corporation, have re-entered the UK market with the rather nice looking PicoBook Pro.

The device meets the typical specs of most Netbooks currently doing the rounds, sporting a 8.9 inch wide screen screen (1024 x 600), 1 GB Ram, 60 GB hard drive, VGA output, 1.3 MP webcam, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, two USB 2.0 ports and a 4 in 1 card reader. The PicoBook Pro comes in two flavours: Linux (Novell SUSE Enterprise) and Windows XP...

Get an Acer Aspire One Netbook for $309, shipped

Posted by Rick Broida

Though not quite as cheap as the Asus Eee PC from a couple weeks ago, the Acer Aspire One is one of the top-rated Netbooks (there's a contradiction in terms), and you can get it for just $309 shipped--no rebates required. Hey, they gotta do something to unload these lemons, right?

I kid, I kid. While I still don't see the appeal of a PC with a tiny screen, tiny keyboard, tiny amount of storage, mediocre battery life, and limited video-playback capabilities, at least the prices are starting to get more attractive.

This particular model comes with an Intel Atom processor, 8.9-inch screen, 8GB solid-state drive, built-in Webcam, 5-in-1 media reader, and 512MB of RAM. It runs on the Linpus Linux Lite OS and includes a three-cell battery, which Acer says is good for up to three hours. CNET got 2 hours and 14 minutes in its battery-drain test and awarded the Acer three stars out of five in its review (which called it "the best all-around Netbook we've seen for less than $400")...

Computing and Consumer Electronics Devices Expand the Market for Mobile Video

The entry of a broad range of new mobile devices able to display video will have a profound effect on the mobile video market, reports In-Stat (http://www.in-stat.com). The reach of new device choices will provide more markets for mobile operators, mobile broadcasters, advertisers and other content owners, the high-tech market research firm says.

Even though cellphones and smartphones will remain the predominant method of viewing mobile video, over 160 million other devices that provide mobile video over networks now in exclusive use by cellphones will be sold in the next five years.

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• Shipments of 3G video-capable cellphones will increase at 11.2% annual growth, reaching over 641 million by 2013.
  
• The number and types of devices using digital mobile broadcast networks such as ISDB-T, DVB-H, MediaFLO, and DMB-T will expand to nearly 127 million in five years. China's CMMB will make up over 12% of those devices.
  
• More than a half-billion devices capable of viewing Internet videoover 3G networks will be sold in 2013. Cumulative sales will approach 2 billion units
  

The research, "Global Cellular Video Devices: Internet Video Expands the Market" (#IN0804045WH), covers the worldwide market for devices that can support mobile video. It provides analysis of the market for various consumer electronic devices capable of receiving mobile video from a variety of sources. It includes worldwide device shipment forecasts for video-connected:

• Computing devices, such as mobile Internet devices (MIDs), ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs), and laptop/notebook computers.
  
• Cellphones and smartphones, such as the RIM BlackBerry,Apple iPhone, and smartphones having Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Android, and Linux operating systems.
  
• Consumer electronics products, including personal navigation devices (PNDs), portable media players (PMPs), and handheld games, such as the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS.

The forecasts cover devices that will be able to provide mobile video from mobile operators (including MobiTV, GoTV and VCast), mobile digital video (ISDB-T, DVB-H, MediaFLO, DMB-T and others), as well as devices that access the Internet over 3G networks.

iSuppli Says LCD Sales to Hit $110.8 Billion in 2012

Study says increase in LCD sales could also boost sales of digital settop boxes.

OCT
10

By Steve Crowe

10.10.2008 — LCD TVs will become the largest CE market by 2012 with sales hitting $110.8 billion, says a recent iSuppli report.

If this prediction pans out, worldwide LCD TVs sales will almost double from $61 billion in 2007, according to the report.

"Consumers want their electronics, in good times and in bad," says iSuppli senior analyst Sheri Greenspan.

"Because of this, the consumer-electronics market will continue its incremental growth over the next four years, driven by LCD TVs, along with consumer appliances, digital set-top boxes (STBs), digital still cameras and video game consoles."

Reasons for the potential growth include:

• Global transition to digital broadcast
• Rapidly declining prices
• Consumer preference for HD displays and thin sets

Semiconductor sales have grown 5.5%

Personal computers and cell phones drive chip sales

By Jim Carbone -- Purchasing

Eight-month worldwide sales of semiconductors were $170.2 billion, an increase of 4.5% from the same period of 2007 when sales were $162.9 billion, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.

Global sales grew 5.5% to $22.7 billion in August from August 2007 sales of $21.5 billion and by 2.4% from July when sales were $22.2 billion. “Global sales of semiconductors remained strong in August,” says SIA President George Scalise. “Sales of personal computers and cellular handsets continued to be the principal drivers of demand.”

PC unit sales are projected to grow by more than 13% in 2008. Unit sales of cellular handsets are forecast to grow about 10% in 2008, with the strongest growth coming from emerging markets.

However, continuing price pressure on DRAMs and NAND flash memory dampened overall industry growth. Excluding memory products, semiconductor industry sales were up by 11.4% year-on-year in August. Year-to-date sales were 4.5% ahead of last year and remain in line with the SIA mid-year forecast of 4.3% growth in 2008...

HP, Nokia, Dell, Top 10 OEM Consumed 33% of Semiconductors

Gartner Says Top 10 Original Equipment Manufacturers Accounted for $84 Billion of Semiconductors Consumed in 2006 

STAMFORD, Conn., February 20, 2007 — The top 10 original equipment manufacturer (OEM) firms accounted for $84 billion of the semiconductor market in 2006, representing a third of all semiconductor consumption, according to preliminary results from Gartner, Inc. This is a 9 percent increase from 2005 when the top 10 OEMs accounted for $77 billion of semiconductors sales.

HP was the top semiconductor consumer with approximately $12 billion, but Nokia and Dell have closed the gap to within $0.5 billion. Samsung and Sony rounded out the top five semiconductor consumers, followed by Motorola, Siemens, Toshiba, LG and Apple.

"Nokia, Motorola and Siemens represented a large fraction of the increased consumption, driven by strong cell phone and communications growth," said Alfonso Velosa, research director at Gartner. "Data processing and telecommunications firms represented 75 percent of the total semiconductor spending by the top consumers. Average semiconductor consumption by the top 10 firms grew from $7.7 billion in 2005 to $8.4 billion in our preliminary estimates."

Gartner analysts point out that the top 10 OEMs are in a diverse group of businesses. They focus on a variety of applications, ranging from large telecom equipment firms to industrial conglomerates. These OEMs operate under a variety of end market focuses. Nokia, HP and Dell are largely pure-play firms, focused on the cell phone or the PC and server markets. Sony is centered on consumer electronics, but also sells automotive and data processing products. Apple entered the top 10 for the first time, propelled by its broad mix of products, and in particular, its strong sales of portable media products.

“The top 10 OEMs in 2006 were multinational firms that have been implementing supply chain best practices over many years,” Mr. Velosa said. “They have experience in managing a large number of global supply chain partners. This experience is enabling these OEMs to better compete in commoditized markets by increasing the volume of products developed where product design and manufacturing may be controlled in different geographic regions by the OEM or its partners.”

“Although semiconductor consumption will remain concentrated among the top OEMs, the design-in, sales, order and fulfillment channels will continue to evolve,” Mr. Velosa said.

Additional information is available in the Gartner report "Top 10 Semiconductor Consumers, 2006 Preliminary Estimates". This report provides preliminary rankings for the top 10 companies worldwide. The report is available on Gartner’s Web site athttp://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=501076&subref=simplesearch. Later this year, Gartner Dataquest will publish an analysis of the top 50 OEM semiconductor consumers by application for 2006. This report will contain an in-depth analysis of each company’s semiconductor supply chain, including manufacturing and design locations.