SCOTTSDALE, AZ – A research firm lowered its worldwide semiconductor industry growth forecast for 2011 to 5% from 10%, citing the weaker-than-expected economy.

BANNOCKBURN, IL – Ninety-day moving average North American circuit board shipments increased 4.4% in June, as orders decreased 4.2% compared to the same month in 2010, says IPC.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ – Small office (one to four employees) spending on broadband IP telephony will increase 83% from 2010 to 2015, says In-Stat.

“Broadband IP telephony offers a number of advantages for small businesses and SOHO; primary among them is the low monthly service fee and negligible costs for long distance,” says Greg Potter, research analyst. “Unfortunately it does not provide the scalability associated with hosted and IP PBX solutions. It also does not typically come with the service level agreements and quality-of-service afforded by other solutions, which are general requirements for enterprise and medium-sized businesses.”

Also, traditional TDM is set to decline to just under $14.5 billion in 2015.

Application-based VoIP will increase more than 50% from 2010 to 2015.

As a segment, mid-sized business (100 to 999 employees) spending will have the greatest growth, increasing in excess of 10% between 2010 and 2015.

And the professional services vertical market segment will spend more than $3 Billion in 2013, says the research firm.

WASHINGTON – The State Department has released a document that guides commercial entities concerning the legislation involving conflict mineral requirements.

The Department says it is “critical” to “begin now to perform meaningful due diligence,” even though guidance could be revised after final regulations are issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission later this year.

State is encouraging firms to begin immediately to structure supply chain relationships in a responsible manner to encourage conflict-free trade, including conflict-free minerals sourced from the DRC and the Great Lakes region.

Conflict minerals include columbite-tantalite (coltan), cassiterite, gold, wolframite and derivatives.

Under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, certain persons who use these minerals must disclose to the SEC whether those minerals originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or a nearby country, where mining has aided in the finances ongoing civil war and related human rights violations.
The department specifically endorses the guidance issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD framework includes the following: establish strong company management systems, identify and assess risk in the supply chain, design and implement a strategy to respond to identified risks, carry out independent third-party audit of supply chain due diligence at identified points in the supply chain, and report on supply chain due diligence.