This week in gEEk: The fear factor; wireless power; possible iPod US market shutout

Welcome to This week in gEEk, EDN’s short review of the week’s happenings.

It snowed twice this week here in NY, signaling the beginning of what’s expected to be a cold winter. Of course, I’m not just talking about the weather. The SIA this week predicted the first drop in semiconductor sales since 2001 when projecting a Q4 decline of nearly 6% on Q3 numbers. The industry group also predicted 2009 will show a full year decline.

Those estimates were made on the same day iSuppli said 2008 will show a full year decline in sales, also a first since 2001. While the SIA forecast was mostly based on consumer spending, iSuppli discussed the fear factor — how the psychology of many industry players has shifted to a "survival mentality," with cost-control and cash-conservation considerations driving decisions.

Gartner further projected this week that 2009 capital spending expectations are reduced from $41.1 billion to $39 billion and 2009 total equipment spending expectations are reduced from $30.5 billion to $26.8 billion.

And SEMI reported that that October bookings and billings levels for North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment were comparable to those of 2003.

That bad news is being felt personally by some 1,500 capital equipment industry employees this week. KLA-Tencor announced it wouldcut 900 jobs and Lam Research another 600.

Cymer also made layoff news this week, announcing 85 employees would go.

If you are job hunting, check out EDN’s new career center. For those readers out there who are evaluating EE compensation, EDN took a look at the engineering employment market in its recent engineer-salary survey results and found that engineers worldwide reported varying levels of job satisfaction as their salaries struggle to keep pace with inflation.

And if you’re evaluating the pros and cons of SSDs vs HDDs, see Editor Brian Dipert’s latest entry on the topic, where he continues his netbook hack. 

Brian also compared Netflix viewing via the Xbox 360 in terms of video quality, content navigation, and cost to that of other Netflix Watch Instantly candidates. 

TI did its own comparisons this week, when it announced a partnership with Fulton to develop wireless power transfer control ICs. EDN Power Guru Margery Conner followed up with TI’s director of battery charge solutions about the efficiency and cost aspects of wireless power technology in portable consumer devices like cell phones or Bluetooth headsets.

In a bold move, Spansion filed two suits against Samsung this week, asserting that its memory patents are being violated. If Spansion proves victorious, the ripple effect could force more than 100 million MP3 players, cell phones, digital cameras, and other consumer electronic devices from companies like Apple and RIM that contain certain Samsung’s flash memory components to be shut out of the US market. On that, readers debate the value of IP, patents, and lawyers in this blog post.

Have something to say on the above noted happenings? Share your comments on this week’s news and analysis below.

PS-There will be no "This week in gEEk" entries to this blog for the next two weeks, as I will be out of the office. You can continue to review EDN’s news coverage through its News Center.