Mobile News

, often by the same media that whipped up expectations in the first place. Now, in Toronto, the paper notes that the citywide WiFi network there has seen usage fall since its free trial period ended. What? You mean more people will use a WiFi network when it’s free than when they have to pay? Shocking, we know. The company behind the network says that it’s converting more free users to paid subscribers than it had planned, but that doesn’t seem to placate the reporter of the original story, who manages to work in another yarn of hype by saying the WiFi network “may soon be irrelevant” because of the emergence of WiMAX. In reality, the approach of Toronto Hydro, the company that built and runs the network, seems pretty good. Its interest began with using WiFi for a pragmatic purpose — remote meter reading — and it then decided to extend its network to offer public internet access. The company’s public network now covers only six square kilometers, and it’s waiting to attract a sufficient number of users before expanding citywide, rather than jumping in whole-hog and experiencing the problems other providers have faced when launching much bigger networks. This relentless build-’em-up-then-knock-’em-down hype cycle doesn’t help anybody, but when it comes to muni WiFi, it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop anytime soon. Permalink…

Soon after the release of every new Apple product (and other companies’ new gadgets as well), some analysts tear one open and try to figure out how much its components cost to get an idea of the margins on each unit that’s sold. A recent teardown of the iPhone suggested a per-unit cost of $200 for the 4 GB version, and $220 for the 8 GB one, suggesting that Apple’s making a huge profit on each iPhone it sells. But, as Stephen Wildstrom at BusinessWeek points out, taking these teardown estimates too seriously can be foolish. As he notes, the cost of many of the components — including the device’s centerpiece, that huge, glorious touchscreen — is little more than a guess at this point. But perhaps more importantly, focusing on the components’ cost ignores the not inconsiderable costs Apple sunk into developing and marketing the iPhone. Certainly the iPhone has the potential to reap huge profits for Apple, but it’s a little premature to be tallying up the figures just yet. Furthermore, as the initial supply looks to be drying up, it’s worth wondering just how long Apple can keep the sales momentum going. Permalink…

There have been long-running rumors that Palm was up for sale, with the things getting so ridiculous that at one point it looked like they were made up to boost the share price. The company has never been sold, though private equity firm Elevation Partners bought a 25% stake last month and brought in some new management. Some people wondered at the time if Palm went down this road because it couldn’t find anybody interested in buying the whole company; an SEC filing about the Elevation deal suggests that this was indeed the case. The deal in and of itself does nothing to solve Palm’s long-standing problems (and neither will its recently announced and wholly underwhelming Foleo product), and in the meantime the bad news rolls on: Palm also said this week that devices using a Linux-based follow-up to Palm OS 5 — like it’s been talking about since 2004 — have been delayed until next year. Permalink…

Just last month, we noted how FCC Chairman Kevin Martin sounds like a broken record when it comes to telecom policy, always covering the same ground with his same old ideas of what constitutes a competitive market. Maybe the summer heat has gotten to him, but he’s now gone and changed all that, as he’s getting ready to propose dramatic new rules for the upcoming 700 MHz wireless spectrum license auction, mandating that winners of licenses for a third of the spectrum build open-access networks — networks that allow any compatible device to connect and for any service to be run across them. The 700 MHz spectrum is pretty prime real estate, as these things go: there’s a lot of spectrum that will be available, and the low frequency gives it excellent propagation and building-penetration characteristics. There’s been a lot of talk from tech companies and other groups about handling these licenses differently than previous ones, in order to encourage the development of broadband wireless networks that offer real competition to fixed-line networks. Typically, this entails mandating that license winners build wholesale networks which sell access to any service provider that wants to then sell the service on to consumers. While Martin’s draft of rules doesn’t go that far, it does offer a significant change to how wireless spectrum licenses have typically been sold and regulated. Unsurprisingly, the trade group of cellular operators isn’t happy, and says that there’s no need to regulate what it sees as a perfectly competitive marketplace. Whether or not the cell phone service market is competitive is an argument for another day, but it’s pretty clear that as things stand now, it doesn’t have much of a competitive impact on the broadband market, which is still largely a duopoly of cable and telephone companies. The operators hope to use their deep pockets to buy up as much spectrum as possible — not just to use it themselves, but to keep it out of the hands of any potential new entrants that could come into the market and actually compel them to compete. Permalink…

Tec-Sem, founded in 1981, is one of the pioneers in cleanroom automation. The company was strongly involved during the conversion from 6in to 8in wafer processing in 1986 and also in the introduction of 300mm automation equipment in 1996. In 1994, Tec-Sem introduced the first bare reticle storage systems to the market which today are industry standard. Tec-Sem offers a wide range of automation systems for cleanroom applications such as single wafer management systems, fab automation and logistic systems as well as wafer loading systems for batch process equipment. Thanks to the more than 20 years’ experience in developing wafer handling systems, Tec-Sem is a well-trusted partner in the semiconductor industry. SINGLE WAFER MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS Today, wafers in the fabs are still stored in wafer containers as batches on shelves or in cassette stockers. Specifically for small production or test lots, the management of these wafers in cassette batches is far from optimal. Very long wafer access times, huge floor-space consumption and too much wafer and cassette traffic are the problems created by this batch handling. These problems can be eliminated by the full integration of bare wafer storage with single wafer sorting into one single tool (single wafer management system). The graph on the right-hand side illustrates the differences. The performance difference between today’s batch-based logistics and Tec-Sem’s single wafer management systems can be easily proven when looking at a realistic example of a lot split from 12 wafers out of a mother FOUP into six child FOUPS (one cassette transfer is assumed as 5mins). Tec-Sem decided to offer completely new products to the market which integrate the sorter functionality with bare wafer storage capability on minimum floor space. The first so-called single wafer management system for 300mm wafers was installed already in 2001 and today different fabs are using this technology with great success. Interest in this new technology is rapidly picking up speed. The latest product of the single wafer managers is the new Pr@ctor sorter / stocker. IMPROVED WAFER STORAGE QUALITY AND N2 PURGING Another important aspect for future fabs will be the improvement in cleanliness in wafer handling and storage. The new, patent-pending bare wafer storage technology of Tec-Sem allows the creation of so-called Micro Cleanrooms inside the stocker area. This again allows storage of the wafer under extremely clean and controlled conditions (ISO1) as well as separation of different wafer categories which should not be mixed. Also, the possibility of purging all or part of the wafers in the stocker is increasingly important. WAFER TRACKING AND HOST INTEGRATION Lastly, the full integration into the existing factory control systems (MES) is crucial to guarantee data integrity and history tracking in the fab. Individual or multiple single wafer management systems can be linked either directly to the fab MES or through a separate, single wafer capable middle-ware software (WSM). CUSTOMER VALUE AND PAYBACK Every investment must be justifiable by a quick return on investment. The Tec-Sem single wafer management systems are already proven in different leading 300mm fabs and offer clear savings potentials in the following areas: Reduced investments in equipment, floor-space and cassettes Avoidance of unnecessary traffic reduces load on MES and AMHS systems Much faster wafer access time reduces waiting times Highly improved wafer storage quality with Micro Cleanroom technology and N2 purging Different systems for 200mm and 300mm wafers with different capacity up to 2,700 wafers Seamless integration into fab control systems and 100% single wafer history tracking Permalink…

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