GLG News by GPS Experts (EU)

Pricing of Xbox will start to tumple down now that Blu-Ray is the adopted standard. Many OEM's are returning stocks to suppliers as demand has drastically declined. Sony will now increase production of PS3 + range.

- Until now ROI has been globally disappointing on 3G semiconductor companies and infrastructure manufacturers - 2.75G EDGE Evolution is pushing to the high the data rate, getting closer to 3G - Wi-Max technology will start initial deployments somewhere in 2008 

TITLE: The Technology "Evolved EDGE" promises 1Mbit/sec in the GSM Band in 2008

 - Samsung has one of the most exciting family of high-end products and so is strongly positioned in the high-end - smartphone segment.- Samsung did not significantly gain world market share due to lack of products in the low-end, but in the high-end where pricing issue from competition is not...

 - End Users feel more and more comfortable with GPS in a phone as they appreciate new applications - Market forecast for GPS phones is growing from 12 millions 2006, 28 millions in 2007, up to 70 millions in 2010- Most active vendors 4-5 Semiconductor Design Houses 100% specialized on GPS...

IP war and protection is getting more aggressive as Sirf sues GL.  This is after they have settled with uNav, another GPS player only a few months ago. Sirf seems quite concerned with the momentum of their competitors as they transition to court protection, an not innovation, to stay...

- 65nm and other nanometer technologies have increase parasitics due to vertical metallizations - fringe caps -which can kill the speed if not properly controlled - Threshold voltage and leakage is another issue. The gate oxide thickness is typically few layers atoms so Vt is difficult to stabilize...

- Multi-mode wireless connectivity SOC's are in great demand for integrating new functionality (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, UWB,...) in cellphones with small form factor, and at low cost- The RFonCMOS SOC (System On Chip) remains the cheapest solution. Anyway only very few Companies can propose it to date, and...

Gemalto is a distant leader with more than 50% market shareSecurity is a national matter and large countries (e.g. China, India, USA, Eu, Russia, et..) would prefer to maintain national players