OK, I’m not Chinese, I don’t live in China (although it’s our country’s neighbor and there’s a big Chinese community here) and I don’t speak Chinese. So why am I so passionate about importing wholesale electronics from China?
It’s amazing how China has its doors now opened to international enterprises and how it has now sought to expand its businesses outside. One of its companies even took over a western giant a while back. China used to be a closed off nation and a “sleeping giant” but is now wide awake and ready to take on the international business center stage to do a Beyonce Knowles number. Here are a few reasons why it’s difficult to ignore China these days:
• Newspapers started carrying dedicated sections for China business because the business world is buzzing loudly about China.
• Bureaucratic red tape is becoming less and less restrictive to traders, which means more freedom, more than ever, between Chinese and foreign traders
• Even eBay is partnering with a Chinese company to gain more influence and connection in the Chinese market Almost everything has some parts or is entirely “made in China” and Jacky Chan goes Hollywood!
“But I don’t speak Chinese”, you say. Well, don’t you think Chinese wholesale suppliers didn’t have that language barrier predicament in mind? Of course they did! That is why they have English speaking staff and they themselves are already able to speak the international language, which is, well – English! The problem these days, as is the case everywhere else, is not what language to use when doing business with your suppliers; it’s how you communicate with them.
So why import from China? How do I communicate with Chinese suppliers?
China could be the next Japan. After the Second World War, Japan imitated western electronic products like televisions, portable radios, cars, etc. They were perceived as cheap until the Japanese innovated these lines of products, started giving them brand names and bested the rest of the western first world in inventing things. We now forever admire Japanese brands like Sony, Honda, Toyota, and Nintendo to name a few. And whose jaw wouldn’t drop on the smart android ASIMO? China is following the same pattern of imitating, innovating and inventing electronic products that, who knows, might become the next big household name.
China has now been tagged as the world’s factory as they manufacture almost all types of products at incredibly lower cost than anywhere else in the world. That’s because everything in China is low cost; low human resources cost, low cost of living, low cost of energy and a lower corporate tax burden. Every production outfit can employ cheap labor, but still produce superb quality products.
Importing consumer electronics from China is the way to go! Of course you can look elsewhere, but the point that I would like you to take away from here is that Chinese electronic products are manufactured and exported cheap without compromising quality.
Now, when contacting suppliers from China – go directly to suppliers, better yet, to the manufacturers and avoid middlemen as much as possible as the low production cost leaves a lot of room for them to jack the prices up. Remember, your goal in buying from China is to “buy low and sell high”. Where do you find these suppliers and manufacturers? Thanks to the Internet, the problem of locating reliable suppliers from China is now passed on to, uhm, your fingertips. Doing business can’t get any easier than doing it online. Search them out, contact them through email and I strongly suggest you phone them to “feel” the signs that you’re about to do business with the right people. I can’t emphasize more the importance of really building good relationship with these suppliers. These wholesalers are not picky as long as you build nice rapport with them and they are really into exporting their goods to western markets. I can attest to the excellent customer support that my favorite supplier provides. They are prompt, polite and very accommodating.
Take advantage of importing consumer electronic products from China now. Who knows? Your competition might already be capitalizing on it.
http://www.bestwholesaleelectronics.blogspot.com
About the Author
Charlemagne Solanor is from the Philippines and has began blogging in November, 2006. His blog Wholesale Electronics (http:bestwholesaleelectronics.blogspot.com)talks about consumer electronics products. His goal is to help electronics retailers find the best online wholesale electronics deal to explode their retailing business.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Standing Wheelchair Power
Does you wheelchair enable you to reach for things? Or is it hard to control? Let go of that traditional wheelchair. It’s obsolete and it can even cause you injuries. How would you like to have a wheelchair that will allow you to get your things without difficulty?
LifeStand Compact or LSC is a new generation full electric stand-up wheelchair. Its fully motorized chair offers power assistance that allows you to move from a seated position to a standing position. This is electronically controlled by the power assisted unit that is designed into its frame. Whether you are standing or seated, it will enable you drive and move freely. It uses two independent sets of electronics to perform these functions.
LifeStand Compact with its E-fix Power Driver provides mobility. To regenerate energy back into the battery every time the brake is used, a high efficient quick-release wheel hub drive was installed. However, it only provides for a very small battery pack.
It has a control unit that controls all of the Compact’s electronics. This control unit has an LCD display which enables you to program easily. Also, you can pre-select speed rate and battery level. It does not require any external programmer. You can explore your own comfort level even if you are driving.
It comes with a remote swing away joystick so you can easily access to tables, desks and countertops. The joystick can be mounted on either side of the chair, so you do not have to worry if you are left handed or right handed. It can even be mounted on the back of the chair. You don’t really need to put it there unless someone maneuvers the wheelchair for you.
LifeStand Compact has centralized functions for moving and standing with reclinable backrest and speed control. The angle of the armrest is constant so you will always be comfortable even if you change the backrest slant. This is essential for tray table use. The contoured tibia support has a pad that’s anti decubitus.
For excellent stability, the chassis was designed in a U form. You can use a 2- or 4- battery set. You can maneuver the hand control that is fixed on a swing away. It has variable range anti-tip wheels to clear obstacles when you’re seated and will prevent you from tipping over in upright mode. You can also recline the backrest electronically. The central safety lock can be easily seen because of its red button.
Stand-up wheelchairs are very useful because it allows you to move freely, unlike other wheelchairs that limits your quality of life just because you cannot stand with it.
About the Author
LifeStand Compact or LSC is a new generation full electric stand-up wheelchair. Its fully motorized chair offers power assistance that allows you to move from a seated position to a standing position. This is electronically controlled by the power assisted unit that is designed into its frame. Whether you are standing or seated, it will enable you drive and move freely. It uses two independent sets of electronics to perform these functions.
LifeStand Compact with its E-fix Power Driver provides mobility. To regenerate energy back into the battery every time the brake is used, a high efficient quick-release wheel hub drive was installed. However, it only provides for a very small battery pack.
It has a control unit that controls all of the Compact’s electronics. This control unit has an LCD display which enables you to program easily. Also, you can pre-select speed rate and battery level. It does not require any external programmer. You can explore your own comfort level even if you are driving.
It comes with a remote swing away joystick so you can easily access to tables, desks and countertops. The joystick can be mounted on either side of the chair, so you do not have to worry if you are left handed or right handed. It can even be mounted on the back of the chair. You don’t really need to put it there unless someone maneuvers the wheelchair for you.
LifeStand Compact has centralized functions for moving and standing with reclinable backrest and speed control. The angle of the armrest is constant so you will always be comfortable even if you change the backrest slant. This is essential for tray table use. The contoured tibia support has a pad that’s anti decubitus.
For excellent stability, the chassis was designed in a U form. You can use a 2- or 4- battery set. You can maneuver the hand control that is fixed on a swing away. It has variable range anti-tip wheels to clear obstacles when you’re seated and will prevent you from tipping over in upright mode. You can also recline the backrest electronically. The central safety lock can be easily seen because of its red button.
Stand-up wheelchairs are very useful because it allows you to move freely, unlike other wheelchairs that limits your quality of life just because you cannot stand with it.
About the Author
For additional Information about the articles you may visit http://www.wheelchairspower.com
Use of Electronics in Automobiles Increased Demands for ASIC, ASSP, and FPGAs
Frost & Sullivan has recently made public their new report on the current status of ASIC, ASSP, and FPGA markets. The report not only states how the industry is faring but also forecasts what will be the trends in the markets and what will be the challenges that it will have to confront.
In the study, the experts analyzed also other factors that affect the industry directly like their end-users. They include also in their studies body and chassis, central command, telematics, power train, engine control, safety and security, and driver relevant information. The main thing that the study shows is that more and more electronics are being used on automobiles which increased the demand for ASIC, ASSP, and FPGAs.
Today’s vehicles are becoming more and more reliant on electronic components. Different systems of a vehicle that are being developed and produced today are equipped with electronic systems which aid the mechanical parts in performing effectively. Fuel injection systems for cars rely on electronic components to provide the engine with the right amount of fuel. Likewise, safety systems also rely heavily on electronic circuits to provide optimum safety to the occupants of a car in the event of a crash. Braking systems also depend on electronic components like the anti-lock braking system (ABS). Without the aid of electronic components, even high quality parts like brake components from EBC Active Brakes Direct will not perform to the best of their capabilities.
The automobile specific integrated circuit (ASIC), application specific standard products (ASSPs), and the field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) markets have been achieving much success, thanks to the needs for the said products in the automotive industry. The increase in the number of consumers means that the demand for the said electronic parts will also rise. Other factors that made the need for electronic parts are government pollution mandates, safety and security regulations, and the oil crisis. The use of electronic components also reduces manufacturing costs since human errors are very much avoided.
In the automotive industry, the introduction of luxury features also increased the need for specialized electronic components. The popularity of hybrid vehicles like the popular Toyota Prius also made the demand increase. Electronic components are needed on hybrid vehicles to facilitate the smooth change of power from engine to electric motor muscle. Other mandatory safety systems also need electronic components. Electronic stability systems rely on electronics to keep the car stable especially while cornering. Suspension systems also depends on electronics as shown by electronically controlled independent suspension systems employed by the latest mass produced vehicles.
Due to the increase in the demand of such, the industry is expected to generate considerable revenues especially in the European region’s market where the industry is doing a very good business. While Europe may be the leading region in terms of production of ASICs, ASSPs, and FPGAs, Asian countries are joining the bandwagon. The region has become the fastest growing segments due to the increasing automobile sales in the said area.
While the industry may be enjoying much success, they still have to come up with more world class electronic design automation software tools to provide better service to their end users. Fierce competition is also expected since there are companies that are already established which will make it hard for smaller enterprises to break into the market and stake their claims in a share in the growing market. The analysts said that there is a possibility that the large and established companies will acquire smaller companies to increase their productivity. Analysts further said that the market for electronic components will grow dramatically as the technology used in cars will likely advance in the future.
About the Author
Anthony Fontanelle is a 35-year-old automotive buff who grew up in the Windy City. He does freelance work for an automotive magazine when he is not busy customizing cars in his shop.
In the study, the experts analyzed also other factors that affect the industry directly like their end-users. They include also in their studies body and chassis, central command, telematics, power train, engine control, safety and security, and driver relevant information. The main thing that the study shows is that more and more electronics are being used on automobiles which increased the demand for ASIC, ASSP, and FPGAs.
Today’s vehicles are becoming more and more reliant on electronic components. Different systems of a vehicle that are being developed and produced today are equipped with electronic systems which aid the mechanical parts in performing effectively. Fuel injection systems for cars rely on electronic components to provide the engine with the right amount of fuel. Likewise, safety systems also rely heavily on electronic circuits to provide optimum safety to the occupants of a car in the event of a crash. Braking systems also depend on electronic components like the anti-lock braking system (ABS). Without the aid of electronic components, even high quality parts like brake components from EBC Active Brakes Direct will not perform to the best of their capabilities.
The automobile specific integrated circuit (ASIC), application specific standard products (ASSPs), and the field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) markets have been achieving much success, thanks to the needs for the said products in the automotive industry. The increase in the number of consumers means that the demand for the said electronic parts will also rise. Other factors that made the need for electronic parts are government pollution mandates, safety and security regulations, and the oil crisis. The use of electronic components also reduces manufacturing costs since human errors are very much avoided.
In the automotive industry, the introduction of luxury features also increased the need for specialized electronic components. The popularity of hybrid vehicles like the popular Toyota Prius also made the demand increase. Electronic components are needed on hybrid vehicles to facilitate the smooth change of power from engine to electric motor muscle. Other mandatory safety systems also need electronic components. Electronic stability systems rely on electronics to keep the car stable especially while cornering. Suspension systems also depends on electronics as shown by electronically controlled independent suspension systems employed by the latest mass produced vehicles.
Due to the increase in the demand of such, the industry is expected to generate considerable revenues especially in the European region’s market where the industry is doing a very good business. While Europe may be the leading region in terms of production of ASICs, ASSPs, and FPGAs, Asian countries are joining the bandwagon. The region has become the fastest growing segments due to the increasing automobile sales in the said area.
While the industry may be enjoying much success, they still have to come up with more world class electronic design automation software tools to provide better service to their end users. Fierce competition is also expected since there are companies that are already established which will make it hard for smaller enterprises to break into the market and stake their claims in a share in the growing market. The analysts said that there is a possibility that the large and established companies will acquire smaller companies to increase their productivity. Analysts further said that the market for electronic components will grow dramatically as the technology used in cars will likely advance in the future.
About the Author
Anthony Fontanelle is a 35-year-old automotive buff who grew up in the Windy City. He does freelance work for an automotive magazine when he is not busy customizing cars in his shop.
Friday, April 27, 2007
The Elusive eBay Product Niche
There's nothing more disappointing than doing the research, getting the product, and then finding that no one wants to buy it. It can also be quite a shock.
It's not unusual to research the item, see it listed in eBay's hot list, hear everyone talking about it...and still no one buys.
This is one of the most disheartening experiences known to eBay sellers!
So what's going wrong here? And more importantly, what can you do about it?
First of all, it's quite likely the niche will already be filled. Electronics are popular - but there are so many suppliers already selling iPods that you will have to come up with a unique point of difference before you can expect to get into the market successfully.
On that note - don't forget that an eBay business is similar to any other in terms of preparation. You've still got to have a point of difference, carry out market research, and define your target audience. If you want to get really serious, write a business plan too. I guarantee that the mere act of putting your business down on paper will give you a much clearer idea of where you are going and what you need to do to get there.
Secondly, experimentation is essential! Always test a product idea with a sample lot first. Never, ever buy in bulk with the assumption that you'll be able to sell it all - you might have a nasty surprise.
Instead, buy in small quantities and test 2 or 3 different products at a time. Try different pricing points and adding value. For example, rather than selling Frisbees individually, you could try making up a 'Family Sports Pack' with a Frisbee, tennis balls, hula hoop, and a jump rope. This is a great way of increasing value and attracting people looking for a good deal.
The most difficult thing of all is not giving up when your first couple of ideas fail. What top eBay sellers don't often admit to is that they failed a few times before they succeeded. If you ask, almost everyone will tell you about their disastrous first few attempts before they got it right. This is where making a plan can help: if you map out four product ideas at the outset, then you are less likely to give up when the first one doesn't work out.
Finally, timing can be everything. A product that isn't selling well now might suddenly become more popular in a couple of months time. For example, a couple of years ago the only people who counted knitting as a hobby had gray hair and wrinkles. But, after a few models were photographed knitting backstage, suddenly everyone's hunting for specialty wool and knitting patterns.
If I hadn't noticed a couple of articles in fashion magazines on the increasing popularity of this hobby, then I'd still think of it as a craft appealing only to pensioners. It's amazing what niche opportunities you can stumble across if you go looking. And once you find them, do something about it! It's quite possible that knitting will be passé in 12 months time.
Finding a great product on eBay is all about three words: Niche, Persistence, and Experimentation.
Have a look at this inspiring article from Entrepreneur magazine to learn what products some people have made work! http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,327229,00.html
Good luck!
Simon@SaleHoo
About the Author
SaleHoo is one of the fastest growing wholesale websites on the internet. It contactins a database of wholesale suppliers and manufacturers offering thousands of products to consumers at prices considerably less than retail. Located at http://www.salehoo.com, visitors are allowed to sign up for unlimited and lifetime access to the completely searchable database of wholesale products.
It's not unusual to research the item, see it listed in eBay's hot list, hear everyone talking about it...and still no one buys.
This is one of the most disheartening experiences known to eBay sellers!
So what's going wrong here? And more importantly, what can you do about it?
First of all, it's quite likely the niche will already be filled. Electronics are popular - but there are so many suppliers already selling iPods that you will have to come up with a unique point of difference before you can expect to get into the market successfully.
On that note - don't forget that an eBay business is similar to any other in terms of preparation. You've still got to have a point of difference, carry out market research, and define your target audience. If you want to get really serious, write a business plan too. I guarantee that the mere act of putting your business down on paper will give you a much clearer idea of where you are going and what you need to do to get there.
Secondly, experimentation is essential! Always test a product idea with a sample lot first. Never, ever buy in bulk with the assumption that you'll be able to sell it all - you might have a nasty surprise.
Instead, buy in small quantities and test 2 or 3 different products at a time. Try different pricing points and adding value. For example, rather than selling Frisbees individually, you could try making up a 'Family Sports Pack' with a Frisbee, tennis balls, hula hoop, and a jump rope. This is a great way of increasing value and attracting people looking for a good deal.
The most difficult thing of all is not giving up when your first couple of ideas fail. What top eBay sellers don't often admit to is that they failed a few times before they succeeded. If you ask, almost everyone will tell you about their disastrous first few attempts before they got it right. This is where making a plan can help: if you map out four product ideas at the outset, then you are less likely to give up when the first one doesn't work out.
Finally, timing can be everything. A product that isn't selling well now might suddenly become more popular in a couple of months time. For example, a couple of years ago the only people who counted knitting as a hobby had gray hair and wrinkles. But, after a few models were photographed knitting backstage, suddenly everyone's hunting for specialty wool and knitting patterns.
If I hadn't noticed a couple of articles in fashion magazines on the increasing popularity of this hobby, then I'd still think of it as a craft appealing only to pensioners. It's amazing what niche opportunities you can stumble across if you go looking. And once you find them, do something about it! It's quite possible that knitting will be passé in 12 months time.
Finding a great product on eBay is all about three words: Niche, Persistence, and Experimentation.
Have a look at this inspiring article from Entrepreneur magazine to learn what products some people have made work! http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,327229,00.html
Good luck!
Simon@SaleHoo
About the Author
SaleHoo is one of the fastest growing wholesale websites on the internet. It contactins a database of wholesale suppliers and manufacturers offering thousands of products to consumers at prices considerably less than retail. Located at http://www.salehoo.com, visitors are allowed to sign up for unlimited and lifetime access to the completely searchable database of wholesale products.
E-books: benefits and advantages
An e-book is an electronic (or digital) version of a book. It is downloaded to a computer, PC, Mac, laptop, PDA or any other kind of computer, and is read on the screen. It can have numbered pages, table of contents, pictures and graphics, exactly like a printed book.
E-books have many benefits and advantages as below
1. Ebooks promote reading. People are spending more time in front of screens and less time in front of printed books.
2. Ebooks are easily updateable, for correcting errors and adding information.
3. Ebooks are searchable. Quickly you can find anything inside the book.
Ebooks are globally searchable: you can find information in many ebooks.
4. Ebooks, faster to produce than paper books, allow readers to read books about current issues and events.
5. Ebooks are good for the environment. Ebooks save trees.
6. Ebooks save transportation costs and the pollution associated with shipping books across the country and the world.
7. Ebooks are cheaper to produce and to purchase.
8. Ebooks can be hyper-linked, for easier access to additional information.
9. Ebooks defy space: ebooks online can be read simultaneously by thousands of people at once.
10. Ebooks defy time: they can be delivered almost instantly.
E-books Resources
There are number of websites that facilitates free e-books services. Halfvalue.com is an online fixed marketplace for books, electronics, DVD, music, Clothing, PDA, Digital Cameras, Camcorders, Televisions, Accessories, Computers, Laptops and more.
It's free e-books resource covers C, C++, C#, ASP, Flash, Java, JavaScript, PHP & MySQL, Oracle, Hacking, Office related, Photoshop and other Imaging E-books, Web Design Related e-books, Python and others. All e-books that is listed there are free to download.
To download free e-books visit Halfvalue.com - E-books Resources
SEO Resources
It also has very good SEO resources that may be great for web masters and search engine lovers. In brief SEO is optimizing a site to search engines criteria. It is the process of choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a site, and ensuring that the site places well when those keyword phrases are part of a Web search.
In other words, it is a process of improving the ranking of a website. Process will generally involve focusing content upon the web site, link building process and ensuring the website coding validates.
For more information visit Halfvalue.com - SEO Resources
About the Author
Ekta Verma
E-books have many benefits and advantages as below
1. Ebooks promote reading. People are spending more time in front of screens and less time in front of printed books.
2. Ebooks are easily updateable, for correcting errors and adding information.
3. Ebooks are searchable. Quickly you can find anything inside the book.
Ebooks are globally searchable: you can find information in many ebooks.
4. Ebooks, faster to produce than paper books, allow readers to read books about current issues and events.
5. Ebooks are good for the environment. Ebooks save trees.
6. Ebooks save transportation costs and the pollution associated with shipping books across the country and the world.
7. Ebooks are cheaper to produce and to purchase.
8. Ebooks can be hyper-linked, for easier access to additional information.
9. Ebooks defy space: ebooks online can be read simultaneously by thousands of people at once.
10. Ebooks defy time: they can be delivered almost instantly.
E-books Resources
There are number of websites that facilitates free e-books services. Halfvalue.com is an online fixed marketplace for books, electronics, DVD, music, Clothing, PDA, Digital Cameras, Camcorders, Televisions, Accessories, Computers, Laptops and more.
It's free e-books resource covers C, C++, C#, ASP, Flash, Java, JavaScript, PHP & MySQL, Oracle, Hacking, Office related, Photoshop and other Imaging E-books, Web Design Related e-books, Python and others. All e-books that is listed there are free to download.
To download free e-books visit Halfvalue.com - E-books Resources
SEO Resources
It also has very good SEO resources that may be great for web masters and search engine lovers. In brief SEO is optimizing a site to search engines criteria. It is the process of choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a site, and ensuring that the site places well when those keyword phrases are part of a Web search.
In other words, it is a process of improving the ranking of a website. Process will generally involve focusing content upon the web site, link building process and ensuring the website coding validates.
For more information visit Halfvalue.com - SEO Resources
About the Author
Ekta Verma
Saifun - Is it the little flash company that could?
Do you think the market for smart phones, digital audio (MP3) players, consumer solid state drives (SSDs), portable media players, digital video cameras, GPS devices, multimedia and music handsets, memory cards and USB flash drives are growing? All these products provided a disruptive position taking away market share from their predecessors.
One market segment that could see even stronger growth than these separate products we mentioned, and include other growth products, is the flash memory market. Flash is a root component used in all the above products and more.
Based on history we are forecasting that flash is the memory medium of choice for a plethora of devices in the consumer electronics in wireless devices and that flash will grow faster than the wireless devise market. It appears that in the past, memory for computing devices has grown faster than the device that utilizes the memory. Memory of the Personal Computer (PC) and the Internet has grown faster than their supporting platform. With the PC creating tremendous growth and history as our guide the demand for both memory and disc drives for the personal computer was often the impetus of many upgrade cycles. The Internet with the many millions of new web pages created a tremendous growth in storage. I've seen in many reports that forecasted storage of the internet has been one of the fastest growing subsets of the internet as a whole.
With a decrease in price per gigabyte (GB) of more than 80 percent over the past three years and with the high growth in wireless data the need for new and addition memory could exceed the growth of the hardware device market that uses flash for its memory. The current market in flash memory is about $25 billion annually and its forecast is about 40 billion by 2010.
With each new product cycle the advantages of flash have become more disruptive allowing it to become about 30-40% cheaper every year. Many experts are forecasting this disruptive curve to replace the disc drive market for PC's. Flash has already replaced hard drives in most MP3 players.
Currently the flash memory is designed to support two types of flash memory. One type of memory supports your machines internal usage or operating system, the other type is for more external storage needs. The internal memory often uses the architecture of NOR, which has been established for years and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) considered by many as the market leader. The NOR technology is a more complex technology and is starting to see the market mature.
Often you will find both NOR and NAND in the same mobile device.
The much faster growing market is for external memory market needs or NAND and the leaders is SanDisk. SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK), founded and managed by president and CEO Dr. Eli Harari. SanDisk and Toshiba jointly launched the multi-level cell (MLC). This technology made it possible to divide the cell and store two bits of data on the same piece of silicon (x2, as it were), which significantly improved the profitability of manufacturers and fabs, basically doubling the price performance curve.
This process has become the leader and allowed NAND MLC to become disruptive to the predecessor NOR architecture and in 18 months penetration has been so great that MLC is becoming dominate force in flash.
We believe that this new curve of double captivity on a single cell technology will become the single most important factor for next generation flash memory, and it will become essential as flash is staring to see possible limits in the reduction of it's die size as many experts are starting their forecasting. If flash is going to continue on its curve of lowering the price of a gigabyte by 80% over the next three years, it is my opinion they will need an architecture that's designed specifically to establish this goal. There is a proprietary NROM architecture that has many advantages toward increasing capacity of bits per cell. The NROM is close to production of 4 bits of memory in each cell or quad flash.
The company we believe has a unique position and leads the NROM approach in the flash memory market is an Israeli based company called Saifun (NASDAQ:SFUN).
Saifun is an intellectual properties company which its revenues come in three forms: licenses, royalties and support. This type of model has been very successes for our model portfolios in the past. The three previous companies that had core business from intellectual property we investment into our portfolio's were Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) in1997 at 3.31 per share and still holds a position. Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARMHY) in 9/29/1999 @ 9.60 and holds half a position and Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS) in 1998 which appreciated about 350% in 2000 and we sold the position in the model portfolio when Intel stopped supporting the Rambus architecture late and 2000 and in 2001.
Even though it is very early is Saifun publicly traded history we are excited by its new form of flash memory architecture, it appears that Saifun's approach has many advantages over the more established NAND and especially NOR. The single most important part is their technology curve. They have the ability to double the bits per cell allowing for a second compounding curve. The other architecture they are working hard on is to shrink their size and increase density, but we believe that Saifun with its simpler model should achieve a smaller die than the others but the real advantages with Saifun is the ability to allow 4 bits of memory in every piece of silicon (x4). Doubling again the events of MLC while at the same time reducing their size thus possibly leading the new flash architecture. Another advantage is NROM's ability to work both as an operating system and memory component being able to supply both markets that individually NOR and/or NAND has target.
A second company has just announced that in 2007 they will start producing a 4 bit cell in NAND. The company making this announcement is M-Systems (NASDAQ:flsh). They claim they will have a product on the market some time in 2007. Even though they have achieved this tremendous breakthrough we believe that because the use the whole cell instead of a fraction of the cell for this doubling process, the whole cell's ability to double again may become geometrically tougher. On the last review mflash has not yet explained their business model to (make at own fabs or licenses) and delayed the secondary offering.
It is has been our opinion that companies that form successful royalty models resemble gutters and the fab companies have the appearance like shingles when looking at a roof. When it rains the gutter can create a stronger stream receiving income and achieve a much higher level of profitability. The delay of M-Systems secondary offing might reduce the chance of more fab developments.
Either way this looks like a marathon race and since this is such a very large market it will be about a $40 billion market when quad flash is widely available, that means that any of the top three or four should benefit.
Saifun already competes extremely well with NOR but early 2007 when it doubles the number of bits from 2 bits to 4 per cell it should be able to show advantages over MCL NAND currently the real price performance leader. Saifun has a chance of repeating the same step that, in our opinion, allowed SanDisk to lead the last cycle.
There are many new technologies looking to replace flash but at this point there are a few that are close to achieving mainstream volumes. You should know the Saifun technology hibernated for about twenty years. This is very common, the Internet incubated for about 30 years and electricity for 100 years. New technologies often hibernate longer than people anticipate, and then it seems that they often almost explode onto the seen very quickly.
Even though Saifun's approach is about 20 years old, the technology they have just started to achieve is commercial feasibility.
The true advantage is since they only use points in the cell versus in the more convention approach such as NOR or NAND that uses the whole cell. This simpler usage allows for higher data retention and also provides a faster response time, and hopefully more density, and less power.
This is a tremendous advantage having 4 times the bits in competitive cells. Saifun also believe future that future cells could expand to possible to 8 or even 16 bits per silicon.
Possible risk
Saifun only has a handful of clients, if they loose Infineon Technologies (NYSE:IFX) Saifun largest client, they would impact their business tremendously. On a side note, it looks like it will pick up UMC out of Taiwan.
Saifun has basically signed many very large vendors like Sony (NYSE:sne) and Spansion (NASDAQ:SPSN) a spin off Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) /Fujitsu (pink sheets) these based solely on the flash market are small in the market, since the production volume is small this could make it harder to be designed into leading volume products.
Even though we believe NROM offers a simpler cell structure with several layers, we believe it will be easy over time to reduce or migrate to a smaller form factor, but this has not been completed in high volume production. If and/or until they can compete in a smaller form factor this company will be, based on unit size, be at a significant disadvantage. Experts believe in 2007 this disadvantage should be at most minimal and Saifun believes in late cycles this will be come a true advantage.
To summarize
1) If Saifun continues to lead the flash market with more bits per cell with NROM flash architecture.
2) If Saifun if achieves the forecasting of smaller die than comparable flash.
If Saifun achieve either of these goals it could become an architecture leader in the flash memory market. If they are able to achieve both they would attain a real architecture leadership position.
According to several of our monopoly theories, available at www.durig.com the stock market value of the companies that lead architecture often grow faster than all the combined companies stock market values that utilize the architecture.
Thus, if Saifun become the dominant architecture with the smallest die size in my opinion it will probably attain the leading stock market value in the flash memory market.
Randy Durig manages the several Portfolios including the Monopoly Technology Portfolio to see the full list go to http://www.durig.com and http://www.money-manager.us
Durig's Monopoly Blue Chip Portfolio National Performance Rankings: 3rd In the United States, Ranked by 3 year annual return, for Large Capitalization Blend, 4th Quarter 2005, By Money Manager Review.
Randy Durig owns Saifun in discretionary client's portfolios and in his own account. Past performance is not a guarantee for future returns. All information we believe to be correct but make no guarantee to accuracy.
Randy recommend for open source investment news to read or publishing articles go to http://www.investment-investment.us.
About the Author
None
One market segment that could see even stronger growth than these separate products we mentioned, and include other growth products, is the flash memory market. Flash is a root component used in all the above products and more.
Based on history we are forecasting that flash is the memory medium of choice for a plethora of devices in the consumer electronics in wireless devices and that flash will grow faster than the wireless devise market. It appears that in the past, memory for computing devices has grown faster than the device that utilizes the memory. Memory of the Personal Computer (PC) and the Internet has grown faster than their supporting platform. With the PC creating tremendous growth and history as our guide the demand for both memory and disc drives for the personal computer was often the impetus of many upgrade cycles. The Internet with the many millions of new web pages created a tremendous growth in storage. I've seen in many reports that forecasted storage of the internet has been one of the fastest growing subsets of the internet as a whole.
With a decrease in price per gigabyte (GB) of more than 80 percent over the past three years and with the high growth in wireless data the need for new and addition memory could exceed the growth of the hardware device market that uses flash for its memory. The current market in flash memory is about $25 billion annually and its forecast is about 40 billion by 2010.
With each new product cycle the advantages of flash have become more disruptive allowing it to become about 30-40% cheaper every year. Many experts are forecasting this disruptive curve to replace the disc drive market for PC's. Flash has already replaced hard drives in most MP3 players.
Currently the flash memory is designed to support two types of flash memory. One type of memory supports your machines internal usage or operating system, the other type is for more external storage needs. The internal memory often uses the architecture of NOR, which has been established for years and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) considered by many as the market leader. The NOR technology is a more complex technology and is starting to see the market mature.
Often you will find both NOR and NAND in the same mobile device.
The much faster growing market is for external memory market needs or NAND and the leaders is SanDisk. SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK), founded and managed by president and CEO Dr. Eli Harari. SanDisk and Toshiba jointly launched the multi-level cell (MLC). This technology made it possible to divide the cell and store two bits of data on the same piece of silicon (x2, as it were), which significantly improved the profitability of manufacturers and fabs, basically doubling the price performance curve.
This process has become the leader and allowed NAND MLC to become disruptive to the predecessor NOR architecture and in 18 months penetration has been so great that MLC is becoming dominate force in flash.
We believe that this new curve of double captivity on a single cell technology will become the single most important factor for next generation flash memory, and it will become essential as flash is staring to see possible limits in the reduction of it's die size as many experts are starting their forecasting. If flash is going to continue on its curve of lowering the price of a gigabyte by 80% over the next three years, it is my opinion they will need an architecture that's designed specifically to establish this goal. There is a proprietary NROM architecture that has many advantages toward increasing capacity of bits per cell. The NROM is close to production of 4 bits of memory in each cell or quad flash.
The company we believe has a unique position and leads the NROM approach in the flash memory market is an Israeli based company called Saifun (NASDAQ:SFUN).
Saifun is an intellectual properties company which its revenues come in three forms: licenses, royalties and support. This type of model has been very successes for our model portfolios in the past. The three previous companies that had core business from intellectual property we investment into our portfolio's were Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) in1997 at 3.31 per share and still holds a position. Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARMHY) in 9/29/1999 @ 9.60 and holds half a position and Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS) in 1998 which appreciated about 350% in 2000 and we sold the position in the model portfolio when Intel stopped supporting the Rambus architecture late and 2000 and in 2001.
Even though it is very early is Saifun publicly traded history we are excited by its new form of flash memory architecture, it appears that Saifun's approach has many advantages over the more established NAND and especially NOR. The single most important part is their technology curve. They have the ability to double the bits per cell allowing for a second compounding curve. The other architecture they are working hard on is to shrink their size and increase density, but we believe that Saifun with its simpler model should achieve a smaller die than the others but the real advantages with Saifun is the ability to allow 4 bits of memory in every piece of silicon (x4). Doubling again the events of MLC while at the same time reducing their size thus possibly leading the new flash architecture. Another advantage is NROM's ability to work both as an operating system and memory component being able to supply both markets that individually NOR and/or NAND has target.
A second company has just announced that in 2007 they will start producing a 4 bit cell in NAND. The company making this announcement is M-Systems (NASDAQ:flsh). They claim they will have a product on the market some time in 2007. Even though they have achieved this tremendous breakthrough we believe that because the use the whole cell instead of a fraction of the cell for this doubling process, the whole cell's ability to double again may become geometrically tougher. On the last review mflash has not yet explained their business model to (make at own fabs or licenses) and delayed the secondary offering.
It is has been our opinion that companies that form successful royalty models resemble gutters and the fab companies have the appearance like shingles when looking at a roof. When it rains the gutter can create a stronger stream receiving income and achieve a much higher level of profitability. The delay of M-Systems secondary offing might reduce the chance of more fab developments.
Either way this looks like a marathon race and since this is such a very large market it will be about a $40 billion market when quad flash is widely available, that means that any of the top three or four should benefit.
Saifun already competes extremely well with NOR but early 2007 when it doubles the number of bits from 2 bits to 4 per cell it should be able to show advantages over MCL NAND currently the real price performance leader. Saifun has a chance of repeating the same step that, in our opinion, allowed SanDisk to lead the last cycle.
There are many new technologies looking to replace flash but at this point there are a few that are close to achieving mainstream volumes. You should know the Saifun technology hibernated for about twenty years. This is very common, the Internet incubated for about 30 years and electricity for 100 years. New technologies often hibernate longer than people anticipate, and then it seems that they often almost explode onto the seen very quickly.
Even though Saifun's approach is about 20 years old, the technology they have just started to achieve is commercial feasibility.
The true advantage is since they only use points in the cell versus in the more convention approach such as NOR or NAND that uses the whole cell. This simpler usage allows for higher data retention and also provides a faster response time, and hopefully more density, and less power.
This is a tremendous advantage having 4 times the bits in competitive cells. Saifun also believe future that future cells could expand to possible to 8 or even 16 bits per silicon.
Possible risk
Saifun only has a handful of clients, if they loose Infineon Technologies (NYSE:IFX) Saifun largest client, they would impact their business tremendously. On a side note, it looks like it will pick up UMC out of Taiwan.
Saifun has basically signed many very large vendors like Sony (NYSE:sne) and Spansion (NASDAQ:SPSN) a spin off Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) /Fujitsu (pink sheets) these based solely on the flash market are small in the market, since the production volume is small this could make it harder to be designed into leading volume products.
Even though we believe NROM offers a simpler cell structure with several layers, we believe it will be easy over time to reduce or migrate to a smaller form factor, but this has not been completed in high volume production. If and/or until they can compete in a smaller form factor this company will be, based on unit size, be at a significant disadvantage. Experts believe in 2007 this disadvantage should be at most minimal and Saifun believes in late cycles this will be come a true advantage.
To summarize
1) If Saifun continues to lead the flash market with more bits per cell with NROM flash architecture.
2) If Saifun if achieves the forecasting of smaller die than comparable flash.
If Saifun achieve either of these goals it could become an architecture leader in the flash memory market. If they are able to achieve both they would attain a real architecture leadership position.
According to several of our monopoly theories, available at www.durig.com the stock market value of the companies that lead architecture often grow faster than all the combined companies stock market values that utilize the architecture.
Thus, if Saifun become the dominant architecture with the smallest die size in my opinion it will probably attain the leading stock market value in the flash memory market.
Randy Durig manages the several Portfolios including the Monopoly Technology Portfolio to see the full list go to http://www.durig.com and http://www.money-manager.us
Durig's Monopoly Blue Chip Portfolio National Performance Rankings: 3rd In the United States, Ranked by 3 year annual return, for Large Capitalization Blend, 4th Quarter 2005, By Money Manager Review.
Randy Durig owns Saifun in discretionary client's portfolios and in his own account. Past performance is not a guarantee for future returns. All information we believe to be correct but make no guarantee to accuracy.
Randy recommend for open source investment news to read or publishing articles go to http://www.investment-investment.us.
About the Author
None
Thursday, April 26, 2007
What's the Difference Between Process Improvement Programs?
Part 1 of aThree-Part Series
Part 1: Process Improvement Programs - Six Sigma?
Part 2: Lean Thinking for Process Improvement
Part 3: Theory of Constraints for Process Improvement
There are a lot of different process improvement programs on the market today and everyone has their favorite.
* Six Sigma
* Lean Thinking
* Theory of Constraints (TOC)
* ISO 9000 Quality Standards
* Total Quality Management (TQM)
* Toyota Production System (TPS)
* Just-In-Time (JIT)
* Benchmarking
I am sure you recognize a few of these programs. Have you ever wondered what the difference is between each of these? There are many consultants in the market that are advocating the use of one of these improvement methods to solve all of your organizational problems. But will all of these work in any situation? Or, are there specific situations that are better suited for a particular approach?
This month we are going to compare and contrast the first three improvement programs: Six Sigma, Lean Thinking, and the Theory of Constraints. We will explore the advantages and disadvantages of each one and the best way to use each method to realize improvement.
Six Sigma
In statistics, a 'sigma' refers to the standard deviation from the mean of a population. Standard deviation describes the likelihood of your next data point deviating from the mean of the whole data set. The sixth sigma refers to the likelihood that only 3.4 out of every 1 million data points will appear outside the sixth standard deviation. That translates into less than 4 errors per million transactions.
Six sigma is all about variance reduction. What do we mean by variance? We are talking about the amount of control you have over your processes. Another way to look at it is how good you are at predicting or forecasting the future outcomes of a given process.
For example, if we are talking about an accounts receivable process with a goal (effectiveness criteria) of collecting all receivables within 30 days, then we would measure the time variance of each individual receivable collected against the goal of 30 days as compared to the whole population of receivables collected. If your individual collections range from 25-90 days then we would say your process variance is high, which translates into a low sigma.
As we have seen in business metrics for results, variance is a symptom of waste. So, the higher the sigma, the greater the control you have over your process, which means greater forecasting accuracy and less error. Processes that exhibit a lot of variance mean they have a lot of waste.
The name six sigma tells us a lot about this particular improvement program. You can see that the six sigma approach involves a little advanced math, some statistical tools to understand the various fluctuations of a process, and a lot of data to run the calculations.
DMAIC
Six sigma is very problem focused. It uses a scientific approach called DMAIC to analyze a specific problem. DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control, which is also known as the learning loop or PDCA.
Six sigma is ideal for scientific or numbers based organizations including: high technology manufacturing (semiconductors), high transaction businesses (check or postal processing), fast paced research and development (electronics, pharmaceuticals), or environments where errors are extremely expensive (surgical operations, space exploration, aircraft takeoff and landings).
Motorola and General Electric are two high technology companies that have helped to popularize the six sigma concepts. Motorola developed the methods back in the 1980's to improve manufacturing yields. However this method is not ideal for low transaction situations (most small businesses) or mature industries with simple manufacturing processes (like baking).
Six sigma requires a rigorous application of DMAIC and statistics that may not be suited to many organizations. It is also highly problem focused, which works well for big problems but can lead to sub-optimization when applied across an entire organization. That is one department or process being optimized at the expense of another.
A lot of process improvement programs are available on the market today. If you are in a high technology, high transaction, or expensive error environment then six sigma will work real well for your organization. If not, then perhaps Lean Thinking (waste reduction) or the Theory of Constraints (throughput improvement) would work better. Next week we will discuss these next two and see how they can work for your organization.
To learn more about using process improvement programs for your organization attend the next How to Align a System of People and Processes for Results class. If you are eager to learn more about creating more order out of the chaos you are feeling at work then the How to Create Well-Defined Processes class is right for you. ISO 9000 Quality Auditor classes are forming now for Internal Auditor or Lead Auditor.
About the Author
Chris Anderson is the founder and CEO of Bizmanualz, Inc., which specializes in empowering organizations to continuously improve compliance, control and customer satisfaction using effective management policies, procedures and processes.
Part 1: Process Improvement Programs - Six Sigma?
Part 2: Lean Thinking for Process Improvement
Part 3: Theory of Constraints for Process Improvement
There are a lot of different process improvement programs on the market today and everyone has their favorite.
* Six Sigma
* Lean Thinking
* Theory of Constraints (TOC)
* ISO 9000 Quality Standards
* Total Quality Management (TQM)
* Toyota Production System (TPS)
* Just-In-Time (JIT)
* Benchmarking
I am sure you recognize a few of these programs. Have you ever wondered what the difference is between each of these? There are many consultants in the market that are advocating the use of one of these improvement methods to solve all of your organizational problems. But will all of these work in any situation? Or, are there specific situations that are better suited for a particular approach?
This month we are going to compare and contrast the first three improvement programs: Six Sigma, Lean Thinking, and the Theory of Constraints. We will explore the advantages and disadvantages of each one and the best way to use each method to realize improvement.
Six Sigma
In statistics, a 'sigma' refers to the standard deviation from the mean of a population. Standard deviation describes the likelihood of your next data point deviating from the mean of the whole data set. The sixth sigma refers to the likelihood that only 3.4 out of every 1 million data points will appear outside the sixth standard deviation. That translates into less than 4 errors per million transactions.
Six sigma is all about variance reduction. What do we mean by variance? We are talking about the amount of control you have over your processes. Another way to look at it is how good you are at predicting or forecasting the future outcomes of a given process.
For example, if we are talking about an accounts receivable process with a goal (effectiveness criteria) of collecting all receivables within 30 days, then we would measure the time variance of each individual receivable collected against the goal of 30 days as compared to the whole population of receivables collected. If your individual collections range from 25-90 days then we would say your process variance is high, which translates into a low sigma.
As we have seen in business metrics for results, variance is a symptom of waste. So, the higher the sigma, the greater the control you have over your process, which means greater forecasting accuracy and less error. Processes that exhibit a lot of variance mean they have a lot of waste.
The name six sigma tells us a lot about this particular improvement program. You can see that the six sigma approach involves a little advanced math, some statistical tools to understand the various fluctuations of a process, and a lot of data to run the calculations.
DMAIC
Six sigma is very problem focused. It uses a scientific approach called DMAIC to analyze a specific problem. DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control, which is also known as the learning loop or PDCA.
Six sigma is ideal for scientific or numbers based organizations including: high technology manufacturing (semiconductors), high transaction businesses (check or postal processing), fast paced research and development (electronics, pharmaceuticals), or environments where errors are extremely expensive (surgical operations, space exploration, aircraft takeoff and landings).
Motorola and General Electric are two high technology companies that have helped to popularize the six sigma concepts. Motorola developed the methods back in the 1980's to improve manufacturing yields. However this method is not ideal for low transaction situations (most small businesses) or mature industries with simple manufacturing processes (like baking).
Six sigma requires a rigorous application of DMAIC and statistics that may not be suited to many organizations. It is also highly problem focused, which works well for big problems but can lead to sub-optimization when applied across an entire organization. That is one department or process being optimized at the expense of another.
A lot of process improvement programs are available on the market today. If you are in a high technology, high transaction, or expensive error environment then six sigma will work real well for your organization. If not, then perhaps Lean Thinking (waste reduction) or the Theory of Constraints (throughput improvement) would work better. Next week we will discuss these next two and see how they can work for your organization.
To learn more about using process improvement programs for your organization attend the next How to Align a System of People and Processes for Results class. If you are eager to learn more about creating more order out of the chaos you are feeling at work then the How to Create Well-Defined Processes class is right for you. ISO 9000 Quality Auditor classes are forming now for Internal Auditor or Lead Auditor.
About the Author
Chris Anderson is the founder and CEO of Bizmanualz, Inc., which specializes in empowering organizations to continuously improve compliance, control and customer satisfaction using effective management policies, procedures and processes.
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