News
EL SEGUNDO, CA – Global shipments of mobile handsets equipped with GPS capability are expected to more than quadruple from 2006 to 2011 because of the U.S. government’s mandate for Emergency 911 capability, as well as wireless operators’ initiatives to offer location-based services, according to iSuppli Corp.
GPS-equipped mobile handset shipments will increase to 444 million units by 2011, rising from 109.6 million units in 2006. By 2011, 29.6% of all mobile phones shipped will have GPS capability, up from 11.1% in 2006, said the firm.
“Besides cameras, multimedia capabilities and connectivity solutions, mobile-handset OEMs increasingly are investigating the integration of GPS functionality in mobile devices as a value-added product differentiator,” said Tina Teng, analyst, wireless communications at iSuppli. “Wireless carriers are looking at introducing various new GPS-based, revenue-generating services to increase average revenue per user.”
Qualcomm Inc., supplier of code division multiple access solutions, began to integrate GPS processors into its digital baseband semiconductors in 2000.
The CDMA-dominated nations of the U.S. and South Korea are expected to be the leading regions for GPS-enabled mobile handsets. Europe will be the next largest GPS-enabled handset market, as GPS functionality penetrates into smart phones. In September, a Nokia smart phone with GPS capability was the top model purchased on the Web site of European carrier O2, according to iSuppli.
Semiconductor suppliers, wireless network operators and device manufacturers are already in the GPS game. LBS will encourage more suppliers to provide the most efficient solutions in terms of power consumption, time to first fix and affordable pricing for A-GPS adoption.
Semiconductor suppliers include baseband providers that offer complete solutions from cellular products to various connectivity options; companies that specialize in GPS and that provide GPS chipsets and software packages not only to handset manufacturers but also to automotive and personal navigation system manufacturers, and companies that specialize in Radio Frequency and that integrate GPS receivers into their current cellular RF receiver offerings, said iSuppli.
NEENAH, WI – Plexus Corp. announced fourth-quarter revenue was $426 million, an increase of 6.8% year-over-year.
Plexus targets revenue growth in the range of 15% to 18% in 2008.
Dean Foate, president and CEO, commented, "Our return on invested capital for fiscal 2007 of 17.6% was above our weighted average cost of capital and consistent with our long-term financial model. Despite being at the low end of our revenue guidance for Q4, we exceeded our earnings expectations, driven primarily by a favorable mix of customer programs, better than expected labor efficiencies and strong performance by our engineering services organization (Technology Group) ...
"Looking forward, we are expecting a strong start to fiscal 2008, with Q1 revenue in the range of $440 million to $460 million with single digit growth in all of our Market Sectors, with the exception of our Defense Sector, where we expect sequential revenue growth to exceed 25%. Including the production push-out from Q4 and a small follow-on order from our large defense customer, we are currently expecting approximately $54 million in revenue from this program in Q1 followed by approximately $26 million in Q2."
BOSTON – The big news from Nepcon East was what was happening away from the show floor. Most businesses, while noting a general slowing of growth this year, indicated that they were in hiring mode going into 2008.
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