I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

We’ve had a busy start to 2024. We’ve already covered major shows like CES in Las Vegas, and DesignCon in Santa Clara. Pete Starkey has attended conferences in the EU, and you’ll see one of his signature writeups on the most recent EIPC event. 

Several of our team members also spent a few days in Chicago at IPC headquarters, where part of the agenda was to launch our coverage for April’s IPC APEX EXPO in Anaheim. It’s less than 10 weeks away, and you can expect plenty of pre-show coverage across all our publications.

With such an extremely newsy week, it was hard to select just five items you absolutely must read, but here goes. We have advocacy news from PCBAA and IPC, global market data on AI PC and GenAI smartphone hardware, a roundtable discussion on sales and marketing, a bookended pair of international milaero stories emphasizing a healthy aerospace industry, and an industry report on global semiconductor sales. 

IPC, PCBAA Urge Congress to Fully Fund Printed Circuit Boards or Face Continuing National Security and Economic Risks
Published February 6

More than once recently, our publisher Barry Matties has shared that the amount of advocacy currently underway makes for a unique time in our industry. IPC and the PCBAA’s announcement this week clearly demonstrate that is happening. Read here how these associations and 54 microelectronics executives are educating the U.S. Department of Defense (and Department of Commerce) on the importance of investing in the PCB industry.

Sales and Marketing: Our Roundtable of Experts
Published February 6

In the most recent issue of SMT007 Magazine, we looked at today’s marketing and sales functions. What are the best practices in the 2020s? Our roundtable discussion with sage industry experts compares and contrasts the traditional approaches with what works today. Some things have changed, but some have very much stayed the same. If you want to succeed in today’s market, you’ll want to read this.

Gartner Predicts Worldwide Shipments of AI PCs and GenAI Smartphones to Total 295 Million Units in 2024
Published February 7

What is an AI PC or GenAI smartphone? The PCs are equipped with dedicated AI accelerator hardware; GenAI smartphones carry hardware that enables seamless integration of GenAI software applications on the phone. According to Gartner, this is an exploding market for the technology sector. Read this article to get their numbers and summary analysis. It’s worth the read.

BAE Systems Acquires British Technology Business Malloy Aeronautics and 
Lockheed Martin, MilDef Announce MoU To Explore Industrial Collaboration With Sweden’s Aerospace Sector
Published February 6

The global market for aerospace development continues. This last week was quite busy with milaero type news and announcements. I found these two news pieces particularly interesting as they point out the multinational collaborations under way even as many nations work to localize their milaero hardware supply chains.

Global Semiconductor Sales Decrease 8.2% in 2023; Market Rebounds Late in Year
Published February 6

The Semiconductor Industry Association’s annual report was announced, and the numbers reflect the whipsaw effect reported in the supply chain for 2023. Things seem to be smoothing out again, however. An interesting observation: memory chips, which historically claim the first position for sales thanks to their iniquitousness in virtually all computing devices, were actually second to logic products in 2023.