What’s distressing about reports of the US military plans being hacked is not so much who is doing it (China, Russia and probably anyone else with a PC and an internet connection), but why those plans are on public networks to begin with.
Author Archives: Mike
Where’d Design East Go?
As recently as February, United Business Media staff were promoting the then-upcoming Design East trade show.
Big changes and improvements were promised, and given last year’s flat turnout and buzz, they would have been a welcome shot in the arm.
We saw “would have been” because the show has been canceled, with the understated message on the website telling visitors only, “Thank you for visiting the Design East site. Unfortunately, Design East will not be held in 2013.”
The fact is, it’s really tough to do a great show in certain markets. Even Boston, which has a thriving tech community, doesn’t go out of its way to support these events. Show producers wrestle with the question over whether it makes sense to undertake the expense, effort and risk involved, especially when it might cannibalize other convention offerings.
As an event organizer that has put on shows in the Boston area in the past, we can empathize with UBM’s decision. But we also understand the fragile nature of supplier loyalty, and when you open the door for customers to go somewhere else for their needs, they usually walk through it.
Printing Money
Per a new report from IDTechEx, printed electronics are expected to really take off … some day.
The latest data from the research firm targets an attractive 15.3% CAGR over the next decade, mostly driven by OLEDs. That will push the overall market from just north of $16 billion today to $76.8 billion in 2023, IDTechEx says.
But what I found interesting was the market for conductive inks (see the table below). This is an area that is, in my opinion, the Holy Grail for electronics. Get it right, and we will solve all sorts of design, weight, cost and manufacturability issues.
Believing Foxconn Means Suspending Belief
The Foxconn makeover is in full swing, with the latest this piece from the New York Times that supposes that the world’s largest ODM is worried that Apple — yes, Apple — might be bringing it down.
When Apple was subsequently criticized for low wages and poor working conditions at his factories in China, it was Mr. Gou’s company, the Foxconn Technology Group, and not Apple, that caught the most heat.
What this conveniently ignores, of course, is that no matter how demanding and dictatorial Steve Jobs could be, those weren’t Apple employees jumping to their deaths from their Cupertino offices.
Such unpleasantries aside, what the story also reveals is that Foxconn does not intend to go head to head with its customers. There’s ample evidence to the contrary already, of course, not the least of which are the Foxconn retail stores popping up all over China, not to mention the litany of ODM phones and other consumer electronics it design and makes.
To paraphrase an old saw, believe what I say, not what I do.
All Quiet on the Wilsonville Front
A timely piece from the hometown paper of Mentor Graphics looks at how Carl Icahn has calmed down now that Mentor’s stock price has doubled since he started accumulating shares of the company a couple years ago.
The legendary investor is Mentor’s largest shareholder, at just under 15% of the company. Since he starting buying up shares, Icahn has been vocal about the need for the software company to shed its country club culture. He forced the issue in 2011, successfully getting three of his nominees elected to the company’s board. Last year, Mentor only nominated one of the three, which drew fire from Icahn, but with the stock price up 50% over the past 12 months, all is quiet in Wilsonville.
‘Innovate or Die’
While not directly related to printed circuit boards, this piece from Time Magazine on the Japan’s Uniqlo shows how one entrepreneur had the vision and courage to cast off decades of cultural aversion to risk to build one of the largest clothing companies in the world.
Founder Tadashi Yanai, now 64, took over his parent’s small-town clothing business and, realizing it would end up in bankruptcy without change, remade the entire company.
“Innovate or die,” Yanai reminds us. It’s a lesson that’s absolutely true in PCBs as well.
Headline Humor
“Foxconn Has No Plans To Make Apple Products in New Indonesia Factory”
— Tech in Asia, April 30, 2013
“Foxconn to Expand to Indonesia to Make Up for Apple Shortfall”
— VR-Zone, April 30, 2013
Collins Closing
Count me among those sorry to hear the news that Rockwell is closing its printed circuit board fabrication plant.
I’ve been through that plant and this is sad to see. I wrote a profile of the plant for PC FAB in 2000. At the time, then GM Mike Driscoll was overseeing a major implementation of Lean manufacturing, making the site one of the early adopters of the practice.
I’m of the opinion (minority, probably) that OEMs retaining in-house knowledge and expertise of manufacturing processes is a good thing, even if they can’t necessarily generate a direct profit from it.
That, plus I knew several people who worked in that shop over the years and every one of them is a class act.
There are still a few major OEMs with in-house fab capacity. Let’s hope they see fit to keep it.
Round and Round
I had a great time keynoting last week’s SMTA Atlanta trade show, but the best part was sitting in the Designer’s Roundtable, where local board designers and engineers talked freely about the good and bad of their profession.
Read the whole story here.
Broken Signal
Lots of mainstream media hand-wringing over reports that Apple has returned a large number (5 million? 800 million? a gazillion?) iPhones to Foxconn for repairs.
Two things are on display here. One, that calling the companies involved for clarification or comment doesn’t appear to be part of the playbook. And two, the mainstream business press doesn’t totally grasp the Apple-Foxconn electronics manufacturing model, especially the part about repairs/returns.