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DALLAS – Just how addicted are consumers to their smartphones? According to Parks Associates, enough to push annual global sales to over 300 million units by 2013, compared to 131 million units last year.

WASHINGTON – The Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) has a strategy to track the electronics industry’s carbon footprint, with the recent implementation of the Carbon Reporting System.

HERNDON, VA – The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative today released a statement defining low-halogen (BFR/CFR/PVC-free) for electronics products.

For PCBs and board laminates, iNEMI members define low halogen as containing no more than 1500 ppm of total halogens in the resin plus reinforcement matrix, and no more than 900 ppm (each) of bromine or chlorine.

For components, each plastic in the component should contain less than 1000 ppm of bromine, if the source is from brominated flame retardants, and less than 1000 ppm of chlorine, if the source is from chlorinated flame retardants, PVC or PVC copolymers.

Members supporting the statement include Cisco, Dell, Doosan, H-P, Intel, Lenovo, Nan Ya Plastics, Senju Comtek, Sun Microsystems and Tyco Electronics.

The statement comes following iNEMI’s April announcement of its HFR-Free Leadership Program, through which several of the consortium’s OEM and supply-chain members are working to assess the feasibility of a broad conversion to HFR-free PCB materials.

Three specific project teams are now working on the program, including:

· The HFR-Free PCB Materials Project, which plans to identify technology limitations involved in transitioning to HFR-free PCB materials.
· The HFR-Free Signal Integrity Project, which focuses on ensuring no electrical signal degradation in HFR-free PCB materials.
· The PVC Alternatives Project, which evaluates alternatives to PVC (including additives) in electronic cable and wire applications using a lifecycle assessment approach.

MELVILLE, NY – Park Electrochemical Corp. reported first-quarter sales fell 38% from last year to $36.7 million.

LOS ALTOS, CA – The dismal picture for global equipment production should brighten considerably in 2010, according to a new research report.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Global purchases of IT goods and services by businesses and governments will fall 10.6% this year, according to a just-released report. But buying should resume in the fourth quarter, says Forrester Research.

The research firm revised an earlier forecast, which called for a 3% drop worldwide this year. The firm downgraded its US IT outlook to a 5.1% drop, from 3.1% decline. Computer and communications equipment sales will drop 13.5% and 12.4%, respectively, this year, the company said.

In a press release, the firm said, “New data about large declines in business technology investment during the first quarter prompted Forrester to update its forecasts for technology spending.” The company also said now US IT spending should restart in the December quarter.

“While [the] first quarter saw a scary drop in purchases in the US tech market, ironically that is good news for the long run and we expect to see a stronger rebound sooner,” said Forrester analyst Andrew Bartels. “The big drops are not precursors to further declines; rather, we think they are evidence of a temporary pause in US tech purchases, which we expect to start recovering in Q4 as businesses realize that they overreacted in the first quarter.”