BANNOCKBURN, IL – A new benchmark study compares financial and production data of electronics manufacturing services companies.

“IPC Study of Quality Benchmarks for the Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) Industry for 2010” baselines 2010 operating variables among EMS providers by net sales and type of product. 

The survey-based study covers financial and production data, assembly attributes, yields, defect rates, customer returns, supplier performance, customer satisfaction and certification data.

The data are based on an IPC survey of 29 EMS companies from North America with total sales revenue of $7.05 billion. Participants provided point-of-reference data for sales growth, expenses on R&D and capital equipment as a percentage of net sales, average collection and payable periods, and the number of printed circuit boards completed in 2010.

Respondents also reported internal yields for surface mounting, wave soldering and selective soldering. All of the respondents included relevant customer satisfaction metrics regarding returns and on-time customer deliveries.

For more information, visit www.ipc.org/Benchmark-10.

COLUMBIA, MD -- Researchers at the University of Maryland’s Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering have independently found tin whiskers in Toyota vehicles with potentiometer type accelerator pedal position sensors (APPSs).

TAIPEI -- Steve Jobs' abrupt retirement will bring no change to Apple's day-to-day dealings with Foxconn Technology Group, the latter said today.

CUPERTINO, CA — Apple chief executive/tech icon Steve Jobs has resigned, effective immediately.

WASHINGTON -- In a sharp turnabout, the Ozone Transport Commission today released a updated draft of its model rule for emission reduction, proposing a substantially higher limit than in the previous draft.

SUWANEE, GA – ASM Assembly Systems Americas has named Otto Waters chief executive. He replaces Butch Garrison, who had been with the former Siemens placement equipment unit in various roles since January 1995.

SPOKANE VALLEY, WA – Contract electronics manufacturer Key Tronic Corp. today reported fiscal fourth-quarter 2011 net income of $1.5 million, down 34.8% year-over-year.

BANNOCKBURN, IL – Worldwide production of printed circuit boards in 2010 grew 19% year-over-year to approximately $54.8 billion, says IPC.

PALO ALTO, CA – Hewlett-Packard's plans to concentrate on business servers could have startling ramifications for the worldwide electronics supply chain, by spinning off or selling its Personal Systems Group and discontinuing WebOS tablet and smartphone products.

The PSG was HP’s largest business unit in the second quarter, with $9.6 billion (30.8%) in revenue. HP is expected to divest the unit, however, due to its relatively low growth and operating margins.

Speculation on potential buyers has thus far centered HP’s major PC competitors and certain Asia-based ODMs. HP’s PC market share in 2011 is 18%, placing it first in the world, ahead of Dell, Acer and Lenovo. If HP sells its PSG to Samsung, the latter’s market share would soar from 4% to 22%. Moreover, the component supply chain would be dramatically affected, as Samsung would likely leverage the acquisition to create a new channel for its memory components and batteries, thus pushing out a number of Taiwanese vendors.

If Lenovo were to purchase HP’s PSG, its market share would rise from 12% to 30%, surpassing Dell and Acer’s combined market share. (Dell and Acer currently rank second and third, respectively.)

Inventec, Quanta, Foxconn and Wistron, the major ODMs for HP’s notebooks, account for 25~30%, 30%, 20~25%, and 5% of HP’s shipments this year, respectively.

If HP sells PSG, Inventec is expected to suffer the most severe setback because HP totals 60% of Inventec’s NB shipments, says research firm TrendForce. HP’s WebOS tablet TouchPad is exclusively manufactured by Inventec.

If HP divides and sells part of its PSG, the potential client order decline is expected to mar ODMs’ revenues. On the other hand, since Quanta possesses the greatest client diversity among the ODMs, regardless of the final buyer for HP, Quanta will most likely continue to receive orders from this new client, according to the research firm.

In Foxconn’s case, HP and Dell account for almost 70% of its NB shipments in 2011. In 2012, however, the NB shipment ratio from HP is expected to increase, while Dell may decrease. Consequently, if HP’s orders also drop in 2012, it would affect Foxconn drastically, says TrendForce.

Foxconn dedicates one of its more than 12 production divisions exclusively to HP. A potential Foxconn acquisition of HP’s PSG would be influenced by the ODM’s other clients and a potential lack of capital. But given the aftershock if Samsung were to purchase PSG, Foxconn might feel the need to make a play.

On the other hand, Compal and Pegatron, both not currently included in HP’s supply chain, would mostly likely benefit from other companies’ acquisition of HP’s PSG.

HP’s PSG sale will not affect Taiwanese NB ODMs’ businesses as a whole because the cooperative system between brand vendors and ODMs has been established for years. Regardless of the final buyer, they will most likely outsource their production orders to Taiwanese ODMs. However, in the long run, it may change the dynamic between Taiwanese NB ODMs and affect the global PC ODM industry, according to the research firm.  

MULINO, OR -- Printed circuit board prototype manufacturer Sunstone Circuits has added SMT stencils to its product line.

SAN JOSE, CA – North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.3 billion in orders in July (three-month average basis), according to SEMI.

Orders were down 15.7% sequentially, and fell 29.3% compared to orders in July 2010.

The book-to-bill ratio was 0.86. A book-to-bill of 0.86 means that $86 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.

ROCKVILLE, MD – The global 3D medical imaging systems market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.8% from 2010 through 2014, says MarketResearch.com.

A new report that covers the Americas and the EMEA and APAC regions indicates that exponential demand coming from the APAC region is driving the market.

China and India are expected to develop an increasing number of new hospitals and diagnostic centers, says MarketResearch.com.

The emergence of 4D imaging is hindering the growth of this market. However, the visualization benefits of 3D imaging are expected to keep driving it. The market is also being boosted by the increase in telesurgery.