WELCOME TO MOVERS AND SHAKERS 2006. You might be wondering why you are seeing us so soon again after the 2005 version last November. We felt 2005 research such as you see in our Market Leaders would be fresher in June than last year when comparable data was nearly a year old upon publication. As the only magazine that annually takes stock in the electronics industry, Movers and Shakers 2006 presents you with an exhaustive, credible and current overview of today's electronics marketplaces so you can plan for tomorrow.

The 2006 version is has been simplified into four sections, but it is just as chock full of insights as was the 2005 edition. However, to guide us this time around, we had the benefit of a reader survey conducted after the 2005 Movers and Shakers . And the regional forecasts scored the highest in terms of value. So, we packaged all five regional forecasts in their own section.

The second section is our Market Leaders where we monitor year-to-year leadership in 16 product categories. In Movers and Shakers 2006, the explosive growth in flash memory warranted its own category. And we added a DRAM category. Accordingly, each chart listing the top ten 10 companies is accompanied by a market "size-up" which as the name suggests, assesses that category. Last year, we profiled just the top player in each category.

Then we have the centerpiece of Movers and Shakers —interviews with electronics industry leaders. We hit many important execs we missed in 2005—Brian Halla from National Semi; Altera's John Daane; Xilinx's Wim Roelandts; Hector Ruiz from AMD, the world's fastest-growing semiconductor company; and Lothar Maier from Linear Technology, which very well might have the best profit margins in the business.

I want to give special mention to Rambus, which made big news in late April when it won a $306.5 million judgment against Hynix, sending shock waves through the memory community. Our Q&A with Rambus CEO Harold Hughes offers insight to how a company operates when it is constantly involved in litigation and successful courtroom drama of late.

The second industry Q&A I want to specifically mention is Carlo Bozotti, who was appointed CEO and president of STMicroelectronics in March, 2005. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no in-depth interviews in the American media with ST's new CEO, who in his first year operated under the radar screen. Even though ST moved from the sixth to the fifth largest semiconductor company in the world, only 13% of it's business is in North America. A whopping 46% percent of sales is in the Asia/Pacific region (including China) and 31% percent is in Europe. Does that scare anyone?

Our final major section is The Customer Connection. No one can develop true insight into technology and business trends without talking to customers. This year's lineup includes Rockwell Automation Chief Technical Officer Sujeet Chand; Samsung senior vice president of technical marketing Jon Kang; and VP operations Collin Malcolm from $17.1 billion automotive supplier Lear Corp.

We round out our coverage with Global Output in Electronics, which assesses electronics output by region to determine what geographies are running strong or are in need of some adrenalin. Our source is the Yearbook of World Electronics Data published by our sister organization Reed Electronics Research in the U.K. HotSpots (a regular department in Electronic Business magazine) this year are concentrated in the Far East—India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan and Mainland China. Along with that, we've added a column by Reed Economist Jim Haughey, whose forecasts regularly score high in our readership studies.

One popular feature missing from Movers and Shakers 2006 included last year is the popular Global 250 feature, which ranked the top 250 electronics companies by percent growth within four size groups. The reason it doesn't appear in this issue is because the Global 250 this year will not be completed until the August issue of Electronic Business magazine. So the new June publishing date for Movers and Shakers made including it impossible. Fear not, though. An expanded and renamed Global 250 along with the EB300 will appear in the August issue of Electronic Business.

And stay tuned for an improved Movers and Shakers 2006 Web site along with several e-mail newsletters. As always, let me know what you think at john.dodge@reedbusiness.com or at my blog, www.eb-mag.com/tdr.

John Dodge is editor-in-chief of Movers and Shakers and Electronic Business.