The worldwide smartphone market is forecast to grow 55% year over year in 2011 as a growing number of users turn in their feature phones for more advanced devices. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors will ship a total of 472 million smartphones in 2011 compared to roughly 305 million units shipped in 2010. That figure will nearly double to 982 million by the end of 2015.
The fast-growing smartphone market, which will grow more than four times the rate of the overall mobile …

Dell will launch its highly anticipated 10-inch tablet in the Chinese market first, based on a emerging belief that the U.S. market isn’t mature enough for a successful Android launch, Dell executives told CNET today.
Dell’s Streak 10 Pro (see specifications below) will launch in China this summer and in the U.S. market probably sometime next year, John Thode, a Dell vice president and manager of Dell’s mobility business, told CNET. The U.S. market simply doesn’t offer a viable 10-inch tablet strategy for Dell, he said.
“This is not an either-or for …

We have a problem. As an industry. And it’s nothing new.
HotPCB has pointed to and written about the relationship between fabricators and designers since our inception.  And we are not the only one speaking to it.  Pete Waddell of UP Media wrote an editorial to the issue of DFM (design for manufacture) failures within our industry earlier this year.  We would like to speak to the issue as well, but not without providing a way to begin fixing the problem.
The issue is that there has been, and will …

As the keys begin to stick on my Samsung Blackjack II, and I think about how the navigation wheel used to spin freely, I remember the days of my Siemens M56. That little phone was built like a tiny brick, and it withstood the harshest abuse. Whether we were swimming in saltwater or it was falling off the top of my moving car, my little phone never complained, remained tough, and always worked. It was a sad day when, after three and a half years, I had …

Just as a boy becomes a man when he picks up his first BB Gun, so too have I entered the EMS Industry with the arrival of my first trade magazine addressed to my name.  Of course, I live by the motto of “go big or go home” and so it was only fitting that two would arrive, and that they would be the extent of today’s mail.
A little over a  month ago I applied for membership with IEEE and joined a variety of societies pertaining to my line of …

Small, R&D focused, high technology companies are comprised more and more of individuals who have a much stronger grasp and reliance upon social media.

It is amazing how flexible circuits allow intricate and complex electronics continue to decrease in size.  As flex and rigid-flex are developed, unique applications will continue to arise.  This picture really makes you wonder how complex in the inner workings of our most common, taken for granted, electronics are.