NEWS IN BRIEF
For the record 23 August
23-08-2007
by Charlie Taylor
Analog Devices to cut 150 Irish jobs | Mobile phone sales driven by emerging markets: Gartner
Chipmaker Analog Devices has announced that it is to slash 150 positions at its operations in Limerick by the end of 2008. The firm, which employs 1,100 in the city at Raheen Business Park, said it intends to close one of the sections of the plant in order to focus on its more advanced facility. Analog stressed that Limerick continues to play an integral role in its global operations with investment in R&D continuing to increase on an annual basis. It also said that the Limerick Wafer Fab operation remains the flagship of its manufacturing infrastructure.
The combined printer, copier and multifunctional product (MFP) market in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) hit 23.4 million units during the first half of 2007, an increase of 5.8 percent compared with the same period last year, according to Gartner. Copiers and MFP sales represented 53 percent of the total market, while serial inkjet MFP sales accounted for 41 percent of the total print market. Gartner predicts that the combined printer, copier and multifunctional product market in EMEA will reach almost 54 million units in 2007.
Staying with Gartner and its latest report into worldwide sales of mobile phones indicates that shipments to end users reached 270.9 million units in the second quarter, a 17.4 percent rise on the same three-month period last year. Gartner, which is predicting that global mobile phone sales will reach 1.13 billion units in 2007, attributed the increase in shipments to healthy sales in emerging markets. According to the latest figures, Nokia remains the leading mobile manufacturer with 36.9 market share, compared to 14.6 percent for Motorola, 13.4 percent for Samsung, 9 percent for Sony Ericsson and 6.8 percent for LG.
All of Europe's mobile operators have now informed the European Commission of the Eurotariffs they are offering their customers as required by the EU's new roaming regulation. According to the Commission, in 23 of the 27 EU member states, there is at least one mobile operator offering roaming tariffs below the regulation's ceilings. The new roaming regulation, which came into force at the end of July, required mobile operators to offer a new Eurotariff of EUR0.49 for making and EUR0.24 for receiving calls when roaming abroad.
Satellite navigation systems maker Garmin has announced that it is to reduce the price of two of its best-selling in-car sat-nav systems -- the nuvi 200 and 250 models -- by more than 12 percent. The nuvi 200 will be slashed from its previous Recommended Retail Price (RRP) of STG169.99 to STG149.99 and the nuvi 250 will now cost RRP STG179.99, reduced from STG199.99. The nuvi 200 comes with full UK and Ireland mapping whilst the 250 includes Europe as well. Both systems feature intuitive "where to?" and "view map" welcome screen that allows users to quickly find a specific street address or establishment's name, or search for a destination by category.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 