By Willem Thorbecke

Today, we're fortunate to have Willem Thorbecke, Senior Research Fellow at Asian Development Bank Institute and a Consulting Fellow at Japan's Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry, as a guest contributor.

Asia's role in the propagation of the global recession has been a subject of study, but relatively little attention has been devoted to the interaction of exchange rates and production chains. The structure of East Asian production networks and the severity of the recession places a premium on policy coordination in the region.

Multinational corporations in East Asia have established value chains by slicing up production processes and allocating the production blocks across countries in the region based on relative endowments of capital, skill, labor, and infrastructure. As MNCs increase their tenure in developing Asia, they procure more from local firms. This leads to the formation of industrial clusters, and

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Future sustainable growth of Qualcomm Inc (QCOM) is all set to come from its state-of-the-art next-generation Snapdragon technology platform. A major initiative of Qualcomm is the convergence of mobile computing with its Snapdragon solutions. These chipsets have been designed for pocket-sized portable computing devices.  This platform enables phone manufacturers to develop high-speed and more power efficient smart-phones and smart-books. We believe diversification into the mobile computing market was necessary for Qualcomm due to lukewarm growth of the company’s ordinary mobile phone chipset market. Massive growth of smart-phones may make up for these losses.  As of now, over 15 mobile device manufacturers are developing more than 30 Snapdragon-based products. Several leading software developers have started writing applications for mobile operating system, multimedia player, social networking, and productivity development tools based on the Snapdragon platform.  Acer Inc, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and LG Electronics Inc are the ...

As per a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Hewlett Packard Company (HPQ) is considering merger of its Personal-Computer (PC) and Printer businesses into one single division. The combined unit would be headed by Todd Bradley, the chief of the personal computer division. This indicates that the printing business, once the biggest revenue earner for the company, is going through a bad patch and the company is currently focussing on building other businesses relating to PC, commercial computing hardware and software. The company did not confirm the date or details of this restructuring process, as the final decision will be made by the company CEO, Mark Hurd. Even in the third quarter, the "Imaging and Printing" business did not perform well, as the segment revenue fell 19.6% year over year. Both ink supplies and hardware posted double-digit declines. We believe the segment has come under pressure ...

Jefferies is out with an interesting call on Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) saying we could see a bidding war for Palm, could garner c.80% premium. Nokia (NYSE:NOK) mentioned as the main bidder. Strategic rationale: WebOS as carrot - Palm gives buyer a PC-class OS (WebOS; Linux-based, multi-tasking) and a US-centric high-end handset (Palm Pre) that best mimics iPhone experience (UI) - courtesy of senior Apple staff defections to Palm. Nokia can't compete in US (c.6% m/share) or high-end with Symbian but with another OS (would make 4, or 5 incl MSFT in Noia Netbook) 3rd Party application development is confused to say the least. Palm would have to be run as a separate business near term; 'parallel' roadmaps may take 1yr+ to converge; it could be 2011 before we see a fully integrated WebOS and Ovi services ...

After revamping its printing segment by offering new products, technology and a strategic partnership with Toshiba for selling its laser jet printers, Hewlett Packard Co. (HPQ) has now taken up the task of enhancing its notebook product line. The company has come up with new advanced gadgets in this segment.  The most notable product in this segment is what the company claims to be the world's slimmest full performance notebook PC along with a slim consumer notebook, expected to strike an optimum balance between enhanced performance, mobility and price. The products, christened HP ProBook 5310m and HP Pavilion dm3, are expected to cater to the same segment as the affordable HP Pavilion dv2 series did in the first half of 2009.  Now coming to product specifications, HP ProBook 5310m will mainly cater to the corporate segment, being specially designed for professionals. With this new notebook, the mobile ...

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) seems to be concentrating more on its printing business recently. In the recent PRINT 09 tradeshow, the company showcased its latest offerings in its Graphics Solutions Business. The company claims, this segment addresses the $115 billion potential global market opportunity for digital color printing. So this segment offers enough business opportunity for the company.   The company also highlighted technology, products and industry relationships in the Graphics Solutions Business like, HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Press, a 30 inch wide, color inkjet printing device and the new ColorPRO Technology, which is used in the HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Press and HP Designjet printers. The company declared the introduction of HP Indigo W7200 Digital Press, a liquid electrophotographic printing (LEP) solution for offset quality digital press printing.   Hewlett-Packard also disclosed a new alliance with the leading document management company, Pitney Bowes which will help ...

The technology leader in high definition products and the world's no. 2 manufacturer of NAND flash memory chips, Toshiba Corp., plans to outsource a part of the production of its next-generation 28-nanometer (nm) system chips.

According to industry sources, the chips will be used in a wide range of electronics such as game consoles, digital cameras, flat panel TVs and other electronic gadgets starting in April 2010. To meet demand by that period, Toshiba will have to ramp up production. Its customers include IT giants like Apple (AAPL), which has already purchased $500 million worth flash memory chips from Toshiba.

Toshiba currently manufactures chips at its plant in Oita, southern Japan and plans to outsource to expand its production if capacity is insufficient.

According to sources, Toshiba is holding discussion with Singapore’s Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. (CHRT) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to spin off Globalfoundries

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Google (GOOG) recently struck a deal with Sony Corp. (SNE), according to which the latter will ship the Chrome browser pre-installed on some of its PC models. The financial or other details of the transaction were not disclosed. A Google spokesperson said that the deal was in the nature of a first step and agreements with other leading PC-makers are expected to follow.   We think this is an interesting move and could be leveraged to boost sales of its Chrome operating system to be launched next year. Microsoft’s (MSFT) domination of the web browser space is largely attributable to its strategy of bundling the Internet Explorer with its operating system. Since MSFT operating systems continue to be the most commonly used, this is an obvious advantage. While Microsoft, being the market leader, is hindered by anti-trust actions from smaller players, Google Chrome is not likely to face ...

Qualcomm Inc (QCOM) is all set to start selling chipsets for smart-books from the next quarter onward. The company is the largest developer of digital mobile chipsets based on CDMA wireless technology. This new venture into the smart-book market will be a vertical diversification for the company. A smart-book is a pocket digital assistant (PDA) that functions like a mobile phone but resembles a small-size notebook with full keyboards. The chipset market for computer is primarily dominated by Intel Inc (INTC). Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) and Texas Instruments Inc (TXN) are other major players. Qualcomm has developed smart-book chipsets based on its state-of-the-art Snapdragon platform technology. A path-breaking initiative of the company is the convergence of mobile computing with the next-generation Snapdragon platform. These chipsets have been designed for pocket-sized portable computing devices. Using Snapdragon chipsets, the consumers will no ...

Semiconductor Industry Trying to Survive

Tony Daltorio, The Investment U Research Team

The financial downturn and global recession has hit the semiconductor industry hard.

Orders for microchips were almost non-existent at the end of 2008 as computers and mobile phones languished unsold on retailers’ shelves.

According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, global semiconductor sales fell 2.8 percent last year and are expected to fall a further 21.5 percent to $195.6 billion this year.

Despite the positive reaction in the stock market to the latest sales figures from Intel (INTC),the world’s biggest chipmaker, the numbers were mixed at best. Intel did enjoy a sales revival driven by consumers buying cheaper, smaller netbooks, but revenues fell in Europe and sales in the key business customer area were weak.

Let’s take a closer look at the semiconductor industry for profit opportunities.

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