The Contrarian

    Excellent article in our sister publication this week on Qualcomm's continuing efforts to address the design once for multiple fabs problem.
     Having spent a day with Qualcomm executives at their San Diego headquarters in late September, I could not agree more with the writer's final conclusion:
     "Qualcomm is gradually coming to look very unlike the traditional, easily funded and easily managed fabless company. But it may be starting to resemble the future of the semiconductor industry."
      What this particular article does not touch on, but is certainly a part of the broader story, is Qualcomm's efforts to devise what could be called a just-in-time inventory strategy that works for the semiconductor industry, or at least for it, the largest fabless company.
      Watch Electronic Business online for a fuller report on this in January. But suffice to say, if a fabless company is not paying attention to the kind of changes Qualcomm is making in its strategy -- from design to fab partnering to inventory methods -- it risks getting left behind in the dust.'