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Oyster Bay, NY -  EDGE-enabled handsets have never attracted the same levels of attention that technologies such as WCDMA and HSDPA have enjoyed. However, recent forecasts from ABI Research indicate that the worldwide EDGE handset market will reach 148 million shipments in 2006, representing 14% of the total mobile phone market.

Principal analyst Stuart Carlaw notes, "EDGE is downplayed in the market because it cannot really provide a mobile broadband experience and is therefore not seen as being at the cutting edge of cellular handset evolution; it is viewed purely as an evolutionary step on the GSM ladder, and industry attention is very much focused on the newer technologies. That view is further compounded by the fact that operators do not actively report EDGE numbers in the public domain."

"However," adds research director Jake Saunders, "This lack of general market attention belies the real importance of the role EDGE plays in delivering mobile services today and will play in the effective delivery of content in the network of tomorrow."

Apart from the sheer volume of handsets, ABI analysts believe that the industry as a whole should pay more attention to this market because it is the only choice for some carriers to support any type of near-acceptable mobile broadband experience, especially those with no 3G licenses or those waiting for 4G.
 
Carlaw adds, "When the prospects for EDGE are viewed in the context of next generation networks, its true value comes to light. The technology still represents the only viable choice for supporting seamless service delivery on a very wide area basis. Neither WiMAX nor LTE nor HSUPA will be rolled out with enough geographic coverage to guarantee minimum service requirements on a wide scale."

ESCONDIDA, CHILE -- A workers' strike at the world's largest copper mine has pushed copper prices higher by 2% on the London Metals Exchange this week.

BHP's copper mine in Escondida, Chile, has slashed output to about 50% of capacity, the company said, following the August 6 walkout.
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HIALEAH, FL -- Simclar Inc., a contract electronics manufacturer, will restate its 2005 finances due to accounting errors in its Mexican operations.

The company stated that it is still investigating whether these errors will also affect its financial statements for the quarter ended March 31, 2006.
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SPOKANE, WA -- EMS provider Key Tronic reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $52.5 million, up 13.1%  sequentially and down 1.3% from the fiscal fourth quarter of 2005. Net income was $7.1 million, up from $917,000 sequentially and $2.8 million in Q4 2005.

For the fiscal year, revenue was $187.7 million, down 7.5%, and net income was up 55.2% to $9.8 million.
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SARATOGA, CA  – The U.S.’s gross domestic product is not a leading indicator for the performance of the semiconductor industry, according to analysis conducted by Advanced Forecasting.

The firm found that the GDP’s value as a leading indicator was only relevant during five out of the 16 years investigated.

“The GDP’s historical year-over-year quarterly growth rate correlated well with IC revenues from the end of 2000 to the end of 2004 with a three-month lead, but no correlation exists during the periods 1990 through 2000 and 2005 through the present,” said Rosa Luis, director of marketing and sales.

“Continuing to use the GDP as a predictive tool for the semiconductor industry today may greatly mislead decision-makers.”

The 2001recession was an anomaly with disastrous results for numerous U.S. industries including metal fabrication, construction materials and automobiles. The same analysis conducted on IC revenues was performed on each of the aforementioned industries with similar results for the 2000 through 2004 period.

In the years prior and following this period, the correlations vary from non-existent to strong. Conclusion: Due to the strength and depth of the 2001 recession, many industry segments were similarly affected. Each experienced the increasing growth rates leading up to a peak in 2000 and a severe decline following that peak.

The dot.com recession was an outlier. The fact that IC revenues matched GDP (with a lag of three months) wasn’t unique to the semiconductor industry, and like in other industries, this phenomenon vanished afterward. Therefore, continued use of the GDP as a predictive tool for the IC industry based on the strong correlation during that period is risky.
ROLLING MEADOWS, IL – The Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (IEST) has release the program for the 24th Space Simulation Conference. The conference will be held Nov. 6–9, in Annapolis, Maryland. Technical sessions run from Nov. 7–9 and are preceded by tutorials on Nov. 6.
 

The conference is an international forum in space hardware environmental testing for R&D and qualification. It provides an opportunity for engineers, technicians and scientists from industry, government and academia to present and exchange information and ideas on simulating the space environment to develop and test space mission hardware.
 

Tutorials will include Cryogenic Handling and Safety; Advance Leak Checking Techniques; Vibration Isolation in Space Simulation; and Acoustic Testing on Demand. The technical program will have sessions on Data Acquisition and Analyses; Contamination; New Capabilities and Facilities; Thermal Vacuum Testing; Simulations and Special Topic; and Structural Dynamics Testing.
 

The conference is co-sponsored by NASA, AIAA, ASTM, Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL).
 

Visit spacesimcon.org for more information, or iest.org/technical/ssc/ssc.htm for online registration.

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