The world's top PC manufacturers are trying very hard but failing woefully to gain a strong foothold in the tablet PC market, according to the latest sales and shipment numbers for the two industry segments from IDC. In a report today, the research and consulting firm identified the top five sellers of tablet PCs in…
Details
The components distribution business is filled with acronyms, euphemisms, and other means of expression that people outside the industry might find odd. I've even thought that a drinking game could easily be built around an acronym challenge: Deliver a new acronym in a timely manner, or cite the meaning of one. If you fail, you…
Details
The term “reverse logistics” applies to the process of moving goods for the purpose of extending the product's lifecycle, recapturing value, or ensuring proper disposal. A key part of a company's inbound shipping, reverse logistics encompasses everything from returns policies and procedures to product repairs, refurbishment, recalls, recycling, and product disposition. Recapturing profits is a…
Details
It may be a Western bias, but I sense some folly in the rush to coronate China as the world's next biggest economy. Some studies project that the Chinese economy will — within the next five to 10 years, or latest by 2030 — zip past the old, doddering United States in much the same…
Details
Raw materials are in the headlines again, and it's not for rising costs this time. Instead, electronic companies are scrambling to meet the January 31 Securities & Exchange Commission deadline for reporting on “conflict minerals” — gold, tin, tantalum, and tungsten — that have entered the supply chain. It isn't as simple as filling out…
Details
Recently, I was greeted with the news that US manufacturing has begun the new year with a bang. Preliminary estimates from Markit Economics reveal that the US manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose from 54.0 in December to 56.1 in January — the strongest manufacturing expansion since March 2011. A PMI reading above 50 indicates…
Details
Reading about the big demonstration in Paris last weekend over a proposed French law allowing same-sex marriage, I paused at a paragraph that said Catholic, Jewish, and Islamic leaders are vehemently opposed to the legislation. The bishops, rabbis, and mullahs all agree that guys marrying guys and girls marrying girls is an unsavory practice that…
Details
I've always been fascinated by the pricing conundrum sellers and buyers of electronic components face when it comes to figuring out whether they are overpaying for parts, or selling them at a discounted price relative to competitors. That ongoing tussle for clarity between sellers and buyers has long dominated discussion in the electronics industry, but…
Details
It likely will come as no surprise to the high-tech and electronics industry that electronic equipment is the second highest consumer returns category after apparel. Now, with the 2012 holiday shopping season behind them, many electronics retailers and manufacturers are experiencing one of the highest volumes of returns they are likely to see all year…
Details
At DesignCon, UBM Tech, whose portfolio includes essential business and technical information for design engineers and the electronics industry, and Lytica Inc., the global leader in electronic component cost analysis, announced an alliance to offer an independent market price benchmarking application to the global electronics industry. Lytica's Component Cost Estimator, a new web-based component price…
Details