by 
It's that time of year again. The Mobile World Congress is off and running in Barcelona, Spain, and tens of thousands of global mobile executives are talking up their phones, tablets, and other hyper-connected technology.
Of course, everyone wants to get their news out early when attendees are buzzing with excitement, and the press is chasing down rumors. Here's a quick overview of some of the news.
EE Times, an EBN sister publication, reported Sunday on HTC talking up its One Series of smartphones. One device features a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, and another uses Qualcomm's dual-core Snapdragon S4. {complink 2430|Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.} showed off what it calls the world's fastest handsets and tablets. Huawei said the devices use a new quad-core applications processor designed by its chip division.
{complink 3847|Nokia Corp.} executives took the stage bright and early Monday morning and surprised people with its new 808 PureView camera phone. The wow factor comes in the form of a 41-megapixel sensor with high-performance Carl Zeiss optics and new pixel oversampling technology. To put this in perspective, Apple's iPhone 4S uses an eight-megapixel sensor.
Even if it's being built on the Symbian platform (which Nokia said it would support until 2016) and is not immediately available on Windows, it's good to hear Nokia executives talking about something that, at least on the surface, sounds innovative. This is especially true when you consider how much Nokia has been floundering these last few years -- something EBN has covered in-depth. (See: Nokia Cuts More, But Is It Enough?)
Additionally, Nokia unveiled the Lumia 610, which is aimed at a younger audience, and said its recently launched Lumia 900 will be available in markets beyond the US, including Canada and China. It also launched three Asha products (the 202, 203, and 302), expanding the reach and capabilities on its lower-end Series 40 feature phones.
The news wasn't limited to handset makers. Manufacturers now want everyone to believe the need for a fully connected mobile life touches every device in your personal space, including the grandaddy of them all: your car.
Ford Motor Co. used the mobile event to debut a car, and executive chairman Bill Ford Jr. delivered what conference organizers called his first keynote technology speech in Europe. He talked Monday evening about the "global gridlock" issue that comes with increased "urban mobility" and the possibility of having 4 billion cars on the road globally by the mid-century.
He called on the auto and mobile industries and governments to collaborate more closely on how vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure, and vehicle-to-cloud communications can be standardized across different platforms and autos. The goal is to connect mountains of data to increase public safety, address traffic congestion, and give consumers more hands-free technology options while reducing distractions. Ford Motor has started taking several steps in that direction, he said.
"We have cut our product cycle times dramatically. In your world, we're still dinosaurs, but we've gone from lifecycles of five to seven years to two to three years. We're building in inflection points into our platforms, so we can improve them without having to build a new car," the executive chairman said. "Before, technology was seen as an add-on and done by someone outside the company. Now technology is the differentiator and drives our business. Now there is a generation of executives in auto companies that get it. We need your help, and we're no longer going to keep you at arm's length and tell you, 'Come back in a few years.'"
Wondering what else will happen here? I'll have another on-the-ground update this week.
Ford's point about using connectivity to help gridlock is the best possible use of mobile technology. Getting lost was the main reason behind GPS and people that are lost drive slower and snarl traffic up. By the time you hit a traffic jam, it's usually too late to do anything about it. If you know your fellow commuters, and anyone that works in an office probably does, tweeting about a traffic jam is a great way to help out a colleague. The tweets would have to be voice-recognition driven, but I can see how that would work. Status updates about being stuck in traffice is another tool. Again, these would have to have an interface that doesn't require reading while driving.
If a tweet isn't text, though, is it still a tweet?
Hi Barbara,
Ford's speech was pretty good, all things considered (end of the day keynote, but on day 1 when everyone is excited about the possibility of a hyper-connected world). And, yeah, I liked his idea of having vehicles talk directly to the highway system to get traffic flowing better. Admittedly, though, I did simultaneously also visualize a bad movie scene where Stephen King's Christine meets a Bruce Willis-style crash'em-up thriller to cause global traffic chaos.
And – good question what do we call a voice tweet? Maybe we should come up with something and trademark it so we can royalties when it becomes famous.=)
Jenn, I couldn't but wonder if Ford said those things after reading the statement. Really? The automotive industry is now going to start listening to its high-tech suppliers and no longer insist on a 5-year design cycle? It's like they've become anachronistic in a light-speed economy. It's a good start but, by heck, they sure took their time getting here!
Bolaji – Yeah, he said it during the Q&A, and FWIW, he sounded sincere. It sounds like car guys are finally realizing how important technology is going to be in saving their own industry. He even had interesting things to say about increased possibility for car-sharing business models, and how individual car ownership will significantly change in the near future.
It was, what's the word, refreshing, even promising… but, yes, it took a long time.
There's a solution to all these Barbara. We should just get self-driving cars and sit back, enjoy all the infotainments we can while being chauffered. Some of us might even read a book!
Jenn, I tossed a comment at Barbara that I would like you to respond to. What happens when we finally get cars that drive themselves? The challenge of being conscious of vehicles next to you while being entertained by Will Smith in the next Independence Day movie or gorging on some delightful stories about Brangelina fades away.
Ford should give me a car that can sense other vehicles, take my instructions on destination, where to stop for rest, whether to visit Aunt Jenny on the way or avoid uncle Frank's cabin.
Ford should tell us about the next-gen vehicle that is really cutting edge and, for me, that would be one that allows me to enjoy reading the news on my tablet PC, take calls on my smartphone and watch a cool movie while the vehicle takes care of all these driving business!
Some projections for 2012 on US manufacturing and their sectors:
Jennifer, what about Samsungs plans? Today I had read that they have plan for ARM Quad core 1.5 GHz processor with better features and functionalities. More details can be available from the following link.
http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800661859_499489_NT_2287737f.HTM
Dave, Your graph talk itself. Manufacturing across all the major sectors is going up.
Bolaji I certainly agree with your point on instability of china, I do feel the companies with long term plans will certainly diversify their manufacturing locations to different parts of the world. As you discussed the human right could be next major reason for the companies to take the production of china in the future.
Dave, If the US can hold aerospace, automotive and medical equipment manufacturing jobs, why can't it keep jobs in other segments? Why is the argument about lower wages in China not holding for these other sectors? If we can get technicians in China to build planes why has Boeing kept jobs in the US?
Two of the reasons mil/aero and medical have stayed within the US/Americas is security and size. Exporting certain technologies is still a no-no in mil/aero. Medical equipment and airplane subassemblies are simply too big to ship overseas and then back again. There are also qualifcations EMS companies have to obtain in order to manufacture for these markets.
None of that is insurmountable if companies wants to outsource overseas. But so far, I think the cost vs. risk equation still favors onshore manufacturing.
I think we have those, except they are called trains…:-)
I'm all for a self-driving car. I find the experience of driving unpleasant when you are constantly avoiding distracted drivers. Other times, it can be a pleasure to get out of the house and away from all my electronics devices.
The problem with the self-driving car is one of control. I know people who simply can't give up the idea of the flexibility of using a car versus mass transit. And I'm not sure how the self-driving car doesn't end up looking like mass transit. Any ideas?
@ Barb
I think its very difficult to fully automate the driving experience. Even if you are'nt driving, others are. And because everyone driving the car is not sensible or undistractable, your automated-driving-car might not be agile enough to avoid collusions through sensors. However, manual driver can avoid it.
As far the infotainment experience Bolaji mentions, its likely to grow as years pass by but automation to such an extent as we dream, that may not turn out to be a reality unless everyone on the road is doing the same i.e. watching Independance Day, and letting the driving part to technology.
It does sound a little too robotic, doesn't it? I'm envisioning “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”… creepy.
Jenn: I think “squawk” is the best term, but may already be taken. As to Movies Not to Drive By, “Christine” has to be at the top of list, along with “Smokey and the Bear” and “Convoy.” And yes, somewhere in the 1970s, I actually watched those two movies. I'll swear it was under duress, though.
Jennifer,
Are you there? I was planning to go, finally I didn't make it. 🙁
-Susan
Bolaji,
You forgot another important and equally critical issue at hand;which is very-very important for most big Manufacturers when they consider making Big Ticket investments Globally.
They are very,very worried about whether their precious Investments not just return ROI but also are protected from Competitors and especially the threat of Reverse Engineering.
And everybody knows China's record in this area.Its an open secret that they are steal and use IP(which many Global companies have struggled and invested Billions into);more often than not most of the initial Designs,etc are stolen from the Global Manufactuers plants in China by insiders only.
They then go out and build competitive systems(for less) supported by the benevolent State through Cheap credit & loans.
However,most Major Western Manufacturers continue to think that if they have to do business in China(the Billion strong market growing at over 8% annually is a big-big carrot);giving up their Precious IP is a price to pay(and they remain willing to pay it)-Even if in the long run they run the risk of being priced out of the Chinese market by lower priced copycats.
If that is the case,then I don't expect a major sea-change in Global Manufacturing back to America.
Regards
Ashish.
Bolaji,
You answered a significant part of the question yourself.
Automation and Security concerns.
A lot of the other manufacturing is lower level stuff which needs access to Labour and thanks to the “Boom” in the Services sector,American Labor got priced out of the segment here in the 1990s and 2000s.
However,this is now changing and American Labor is gradually becoming more and more affordable as the Obama administration itself attests and therefore more attractive for manufacturers globally.
Its a different matter that American Labor is becoming cheaper because its more and more desperate to find and hold onto work(its a hand to mouth situation for most such folks) but thats what happens when you let PHDs who have never ever worked in the real world like Ben Bernanke control the Economy and especially the flow of credit.
Ashish.
@ Barb
Its good that NA has kept control over medical equipments through quality inspection procedures and qualification criterias. In developing economies and in my part of the world, China has even ruled medical equipment market as quality-focus and inspection toughness isnt as stringent as in NA.
@ Bolaji
“If the US can hold aerospace, automotive and medical equipment manufacturing jobs, why can't it keep jobs in other segments? “
I think for automotive industry, Japanese are just too efficient at producing quality cars that simultaneously comply with road safety requirements. Also unlike China, Japanese are also known for their high quality goods despite keeping the costs low (one of the reason being their cheap currency) there West will have to work hard to gain some market share over there.
With some major companies already having announcements at the begining of the show, I am curious to see what the rest of the week brings and if there are any hidden surprises that companies are waiting to release.
Bolaji, I think there are forces in both directions. Bringing manufacturing back to the US won't necessarily result in many jobs; the way to do it here is to automate, not hire armies to do repetitive tasks. Your point, however, about single sourcing the location is one of the critical issues and one that manufacturers continue to fail to assess the risks of adequately.
As carbon becomes taxed, however, manufacturers will have to view their supply chains through a new lens, and it's not going to be pretty. The costs of moving materials, parts, and systems around the world will be revealed, and be in stark contract to today's view of “efficiency”. This will result in an optimization of the supply chain that will shorten it and localize it. It will take 20 years, but will result in a more even distribution of supply chains across the world.
I agree the manufacturing is no longer attractive in China. However, I have a strong feeling that there are other regions which would emerge as the new manufacturing hubs and attract the OEMs to outsource. This could be India or countries in Africa. They still have the advantage of low cost labor that China once had.
“the way to do it here is to automate, not hire armies to do repetitive tasks”
@Michael: I agree with you. The industry practices in the US are more on the automation side as opposed to manual labor. This is why we may not see a lot of jobs being created on lower levels even if the industries come back. This may, however, result in more jobs for engineers and plant experts.
“the wow factor comes in the form of a 41-megapixel sensor with high-performance Carl Zeiss optics and new pixel oversampling technology”
41 megapixel camera within a phone is certainly a very advanced feature. I wonder if there's enough utility of this feature. Would people want smartphones that have such a good camera resolution? Would getting a phone with 41 mp camera be as good as having an SLR camera?
Waqas,
The Japanese have come a long-long way from when they were products were just the cheapest in any category.
In case you are unfamiliar,I think I should correct a misconception you have-
The Japanese Yen has appreciated by 31% vs the US Dollar in the last 5 years alone(From 1st Jan 2007 onwards to today).
Against the Euro it has appreciated by 25% in the same Time frame & Against the British Pound it has appreciated by an incredible 45% in the same Time frame.
If the Yen was cheap then,today it is super-expensive.So expensive in fact that the Japanese corporations are begging their Central Bank to weaken their currency as at these values they are all making losses.
The real reason why the Japanese are producing the best products is because they are able to evolve according to the needs of the market.
When Congress threathened to impose all sorts of Sanctions on Japanese manufacturers for stealing American jobs ,they moved a good chunk of manufacturing to America and Mexico;when the Chinese started complaining about technology transfers they moved plants to China.
This ability to evolve and innovate is why Japan & today South Korea as well are so good in the Technology space.
The currency is a factor which they can work with even if it isnt to their advantage.
Ashish.
Guys,
One should not forget the role inflation plays here also and especially in deciding where manufacturers should base their major plants.
As the following set of news out of China clearly shows,Inflation in China is growing like crazy,which forces Authorities to do Two things-one is raise Interest Rates and the other is to raise the Minimum Wage.
Both these moves raise overhead for manufacturers in China,especially those who got used to a never ending supply of Cheap labor and Cheap credit.
Suddenly neither of these two factors are available.
Also,the fact that suddenly Crude Oil prices have hit the roof means that most manufacturing has to move to where the markets are.
And since the largest market today is America then its but natural that manufacturing will move closer to America to minimize transportation expenses.
But never,ever underestimate the wily Chinese and their will to conquer the world's markets.What happens if they control all the Crude oil in the world or price it in a Currency other than US Dollars???
This game is'nt over yet.Not by a long shot.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-28/shanghai-raises-minimum-wage-13-as-china-seeks-to-boost-consumer-demand.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/29/china-banks-loans-idUSL4E8DT1OV20120229
Ashish.
Waqas,
Most consumers are very-very smart.
They know what Chinese products stand for-Cheap and Low quality.
Thats why you hardly see anyone paying Top Dollar for them.
Ashish.
Michael, I wasn't going to put a timeline on what I am convinced is an inevitable shift but I agree with your estimate of over the next 20 years. As you rightly noted, also, it's unlikely that repetitive work that requires a mass of people will be shifted to the West. It is more likely that automation will eliminate the need for a large number of people while requiring highly specialized monitoring that can be provided at reasonable costs here.
The other important issue you noted and which I wonder if anyone aside from experts like yourself pay attention to is the role of regulation in driving change. The carbon tax as it is known will play a role and one day, companies will be taken to task on the amount of global emission from their products. Once this becomes clearer greater efforts will be paid to this constant shift in products from one supply chain region to another and the transportation of products to end markets.
The question I am hoping you can help answer is this: Are manufacturers already examining their supply chain using this lens of carbon emission or is this not a concern at all for many in the industry? If this is not a burning issue for many when and what would drive the market to focus on it?
Bolaji Ojo is now “prophesizing” that manufacturing will return to the West !
None of the 5 points raised by him are anything new or even germane.
Just 3 months ago he was declaring that more and more outsourcing of mfg. to China is inevitable.
He seems to have now aligned with the prevailing anti – outsourcing wind and made an amazing 180 degree turn and dishing out sweet nothings to distract the future victims of outsourcing and technology transfer to China.
Wall St. will still keep sending Manufacturing to China and all the technology needed to support it. Even if Apple doubles payment to Foxconn and they pass it on to their assembly workers in China the impact to Apple's bottomline will be negligible.
Even for semiconductors the game is almost over ( Huawei, which had grown by stealing Base Station designs from Motorola, has just brought out a Quad core ARM based SoC Application Processor chip that is faster than the nVidia Tegra 3 ).
There are no new technologies in the horizon to replace the riches from semiconductors. R&D for Bio-Tech is labor intensive and that game will go to China. The US can no longer even afford a manned space program.
So long as there are mindless consumers in the US and their masters in Wall St., there is no hope.
The US economy has been destroyed from within by termites.
Bolaji,
I for one am not sure a Carbon Tax will ever happen on a Global Scale.
The reason is its impractical and unproven that Carbon emissions actually cause Climate change (the so-called Climate Science has been totally discredited today).
Also,I am not sure whether u are following the EU decision to start charging Carbon Taxes on flight tickets to and from the EU.America and most of Asia got really made at this unilateral decision by the EU and the Chinese even went ahead and banned their airlines from charging or paying these fees to the EU.Consequently,the Fees apply only to Non-Chinese Airlines flying to and from the EU.
Even parts of the EU govt admit that this is nothing but a way to generate revenue for a Bankrupt Europe.
So where is the support for a Carbon Tax going to come from then?
America?Forget it.
Asia?Not interested.
Europe?Not important anymore.
Japan?Too small to make much of a difference.
Regards
Ashish.
Chipmonk,
Bolaji is just expressing his ideas and thoughts on this Website.It hardly matters whether things actually play out the way he thinks they will or should.
I for one will never underestimate the ingenuity of the Chinese and their ability to extract themselves from one tough spot after another.
As for Wall Street and Corporate America-At the end of the day,they are there to make profits for themselves and their shareholders.If the best way to do that is by bringing production onshore ,then so be it.
I dont think we should force them to do something which damages their long-term prospects and competitiveness.
The Biggest challenge America faces today is its Huge Debt burden and how to manage it-Close to USD 60 Trillion.
The biggest Challenge China faces today is Inflation , its over-heating economy and Large-scale malinvestment .
If both these Giants get their houses back in order,we can continue growth else we are heading back into a Great Depression to beat all Depressions.
Ashish.
Ashish, It's always a pleasure reading your view. If I could predict the future I would have bought Apple Inc.'s shares at $200 or even $300. I didn't believe it was worth the valuation then and now that it is at $542 and seemingly on the way to $600, I still wouldn't buy it — again, because I believe it is overvalued.
My point is that, you are right. What I wrote in the article is not something delivered to me by an oracle. I looked at trends and wrote what I believe might happen. They may never happen or only a portion might. Even Warren Buffett said he wished he had bought Apple's shares at $200. He even advised Steve Jobs to do a share buyback at that price as the best use of Apple's swollen cash account. Neither of these happened.
In order words, the future is not as predictable as some may argue. The best we can do is dispassionately review the facts as we know them and make some reasonable guesses then try to hedge the risks.
Many people forget business is not a case of us vs. them. China is both a competitor and a partner with the United States and other Western nations. In some areas the US will win and in others it will lose out to China. The US is still the world's biggest economy and it will take some years still for China to catch up. Many predict it will — I am not banking on that, though I expect it to happen also. My focus in the article was on the imbalance in the system. It is not in China's interest and it is not in the interest of the rest of the world. Somehow, someday, somewhere the pendulum will swing back again.
The situation in Europe regarding the carbon tax on aircrafts traveling to Europe demonstrates how muscle flexing is part of the new economy. The EU has threatened and China called their bluff. This won't be the end of the matter, however. As a bloc, the EU nations' economy is the biggest in the world but as you are no doubt aware they never really operate as a bloc. China, too, notwithstanding its current action, cannot just thumb its nose at the rest of the world. How does a country legislate that its airline should not pay taxes demanded by another country when you fly into that nation?
It's silly of the Europeans not to discuss this and sort it out quietly with China and it's even sillier of China to just issue a law banning its airlines from paying tax demanded by the EU. Let's see who wins.
Chipmonk, You seem angry about something or perhaps you didn't take the time to follow the logic in the blog. This is not about individuals or countries but more about the entire high-tech industry. The supply chain is lopsided and it doesn't take a genius to figure this out. Even if I don't agree with all of Bolaji's point, I submit the swing to western manufacturing he points out is inevitable.
On the issue of Wall Street and companies, this is a simple case of who pays the piper calling the tune. Not complicated at all. If I give you my money, I expect great returns on it or you are out of a job. Executives get it. Do you?
I just watched an update posted on You Tube about how some folks protesting at the exhibition shut down some areas of the MWC. Interesting stuff. You should check it out on EE Times.
{youtube|/v/9no4wBvuphQ?version=3&hl=en_US|315|560}
” it's even sillier of China to just issue a law banning its airlines from paying tax demanded “
Its hilarious that Chinese passed such a law. However, on a serious note, this is an indication of an extremely powerful economy. But the way I see it, its the Chinese who need the Europeans as China exports a lot to EU. Its not the other way round as EU is by no means price-competitive against China. Passing such laws will only do bad to trade benefits that China is already getting.
Bolaji, It's possible manufacturing may revive strongly in certain parts of the West again but the jobs won't be coming to my corner of the globe. Manufacturing has disappeared in many key economic segments in the United Kingdom and due to cost reasons it may never revive again. Fortunately, it is also a segment of the globe that has cornered another economy sector — finance and services.
In the United States, the story is similar. Manufacturing is moving to China but the US is still a major powerhouse in other areas.
@Bolaji thanks for the post. I totally agree with most of the reasons you pointed out. I think rising oil prices will also help west get back some manufacturing activities because rising oil prices will push the transportation cost higher.
“Even for semiconductors the game is almost over”
@Chipmonk, I am not sure if this is true. Are you aware that recently IBM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES began its first production At New York's Latest Semiconductor Fab ? Moreover I ntel has also started building world's first 14nm fab in Chandler, Arizona. So its totally wrong to say that semiconductor game is almost over.
This could be India or countries in Africa.
@TaimoorZ, I don't think India is more attractive comapred to China. India is also facing inflation problems just like China. Moreover India faces major problems like corruption. Also the government at the centre is very unstable because its a coalition government. So comapred to India, China is in better position. I guess African countries might attract lot of investment.
I agree with you on that. Increase in fuel prices will cause alot of innovation sin the next few years.
In my ares, the Government is looking more into farming which will also increase the rate of manufacturing in years to come
I agree with you but Africa is already an attraction to investments and investors and the list keeps increasing day by day. But then its only for investors that are ready to over-look the challenges.
Hi Susan,
Yes, I'm on the ground here, listening to a session about embedded consumer electronics. Too bad you couldn't make it…. sheer mobile craziness. =)
Yes, lots going on with all the device makers. Samsung won an award, too.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/307212/20120301/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-ipad-2-mwc.htm
So invariably, what will drive the west back into manufacturing is the economic pressure, the increasing desatisfaction from outsourcing to china, and the battered ego of the west.
I would like to know if these are really sustainable reasons to go revive the weak manufacturing sector?
What does the west have to offer that china has failed to offer?
TiOluwa, How about the opportunity to regain some control over the supply chain, provide jobs for their citizens, gain some political stability, revive consumption (unemployed folks can't buy much), reduce pressure on the society from having a large unemployed workforce, rebalance the geo-economic global landscape, avoid being swamped with products from a poorly regulated economy, ensure fairness to workers and sleep better at night knowing your country is not being systematically starved of much needed work?
For the companies, how about a shorter supply chain, avoidance of unwanted publicity about a production system situated in a country that allows its citizens to be poorly treated by manufacturers, assurance a partner is monitored, regulated and forced to comply with globally accepted standards and being able to sleep at night knowing if a plant blows up it won't be because of negligence that could result in a very expensive lawsuit in a local court and possible reduction in market value?
Hi, Anna
Those tablets look pretty nice, and at a very good price. Are you at the MWC, too?
-Susan
Hi, Jennifer
Gee, how exciting! We could have gone for some tapas afterwards. 😀
The MWC Website, and the updates is all I can have this time. Some Finnish companies have presented new products there. At least I am going to follow this part closely from here. 🙂
-Susan
Hi Anna,
Yes, university students on Wed. demonstrated near downtown Barcelona, protesting significant cuts in education. Later in the day, about 4 p.m., a splinter part of the protest ended up near the MWC (a kilometer or two from city center), and riot police lined up outside; some access points to the conference were closed. I went to see what was happening at the protest, and talked to a bunch of students; I guesstimated that there was about 200 people outside the MWC site (an estmated 25,000 people showed up for the earlier protest downtown). Personally, seeing what's going on every day, I don't think the protest outside MWC was so big or such a threat that police and organizers responded they way they did, but I suppose they were being cautious, and being cautious is better than not be cautious, in the grander scheme of things. Also, based on incidents that happened earlier in the day (including burning a car) perhaps police and organizers believed this protest could have escalated, and took the measures they did to secure the MWC site. As far as I can tell, there were no outbreaks at the MWC protest; just a bunch of kids sitting in a busy roundabout cursing off the police, the government, the banks and capitalism. Also it's important to keep in mind by Wed. late afternoon, which is the third day of the four day event, many attendees are already making their way back to the airport; so I don't excatly how much disruption was caused. If the protest happened, say, Tues morning, there would have been a bigger impact.
Obviously, too, police were commissioned to protect a big investment in the city. The MWC brings Barcelona and surrounding areas 300 million euros annually. That said, the student protest plays into much deeper problems in Spain; unemployement is at more than 20% (last I looked) and for young people under 30, the unemployment number goes up to 50%. Prior to the event, metro and bus workers also threatened to strike during the 4-day event (again because of signicant budget cuts), but in the hours/days before the congress, the strikes were canceled. I think that's because the GSMA — the organization that sponsors the MWC — said it would look at other cities to host future event if a transportation strike occured (i read this, don't have direct confirmation; Barcelona is scheduled to be the host city for at least three or four more years); losing a conference of this magnitude — 67,000 powerhouse tech attendees translated to lots of hotel, restaurant and other business — would be a huge blow to the city, so they took measures to prevent anything from going awry. Whether it worked or not or the actions were justified by any one party depends on your point of view, I suppose.
Hi jbond – Like CES in Vegas, most companies attending MWC make major announcements the Sunday before the event or Monday morning, and they jockey for all the press splash they can get. As the week goes on, there's so much noise, it's hard to follow everything.
Hi Bolaji,
During his speech, Bill Ford acknowledged that – how did he say, it — “the joy of driving” would never fully be lost, but it would have more of these Knight Rider features (my words, not his… seems appropriate to mention KITT in the context of the other shows we'r talking about). It would be more of this sensor-type stuff to sense road conditions, generate voice-automated alerts, feeding info up to the road infrastructure system and other things that would make your life easier while hands stay on the wheel. I think some of the vision could be compared to something like driverless trains and autopiloted planes where pilots handle the important tings like landing and taking off. We're already using so much technology to run large-scale, mass transportation systems, maybe now it's just starting to spill over to our “personal” moving pods.
Here are the two cars Ford had on display at their booth. the EVOS and the B-Max; the B-Max was announced at the MWC.
EVOS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol6i48kKzlI.
{youtube|/v/uSgojdbCm6s?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0|315|560}
Hi Susan, no I wasn't at the MWC. I followed up on Youtube.
Africa does have a strong attraction as far as labor costs are concerned. But labor is just one component to manufacturers. African countries also need to work on infrastructure development and technology to come up to a level where they can attract hi-tech industries.
BOLAJI,
Now those are most critical and important reasons for the west to revive manufacturing on a large scale, but a question to ask is: what drove manufacturing away from the west in the first place?
Was it just the desire for cheaper manufacturing cost, or weren't the benefits you listend being derived when manufacturing was being done, so why was it allowed to die in the first place?
Did companies suddenly feel their previously short supply chain, and other benefits were not significant enough for them to keep outsourcing locally?
In summary i think the “WHY” of the matter will determine its possibility and sustainability.
Hi, Anna
Yep. It would have been nice to be there, though. Lots of news, and things going on there.
-Susan
Bolaji, I think you have a crystal ball. Point 2 is particularly insightful. As I witnessed first hand during the outsourcing craze, many of our assembly houses started selling their pick 'n place equipment for dimes on the dollar. Also the machine shops I was working with we're picking up CNC equipment at fire sale prices. For those assembly houses that kept their capital equipment assets, the challenge was how to keep enough business coming in to keep the lines going and not lose highly trained employees. The whole thing was rather sad. China's hand labor is plentifully so I don't see it going away anytime soon. Machines have a fixed operating and maintenance cost and people don't. You can always lower the cost of human labor when times are tough. Automation may bring some jobs back here, but will it be enough to make a difference in the overall employment numbers? Maybe somewhat, but somewhat is not what we are going for. With tax de-incentives here, how many factories do ou think will want to come back until they see a distinct advantage to the bottom line for their shareholders?