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TOKYO– Matsushita Electric Industrial (MEIC) will now be referred to as Panasonic. The company recently adopted the name of its well-recognized brand as part of a digital network product strategy for the global market. The change will reflect Panasonic’s unified brand positioning. With all employees working under one name–and one brand–the company believes this will bring a greater stature and merit to corporate management. “The collective wisdom will be much easier to cultivate compared to the past,” explains Fumio Ohtsubo, MEIC (Panasonic) president.

 

Gone is the “National” home appliance brand, with all white goods, electronics and component parts now under the Panasonic name. This is the final part of a multi-year plan that saw the elimination of Quasar and Technics. “Now we have one brand. Under one brand, we can propose a total solution for our daily lives,” says Ohtsubo. Panasonic’s development strategies for the future include development of device technologies for a wide array of applications, innovations in products and technologies for digital networks and an increase in environmental responsibility. 

SAN JOSE -- The current slowdown in chip production will be tied to the depth and length of the US financial crisis, an industry researcher asserts in the latest issue of the SEMI newsletter.

And while more fabs should come online next year, plans could be postponed if the economy fails to improve, says George Burns of Strategic Marketing Associates.

The number of new fabs dropped this year to 20, from 33 a year ago, and the investment in those facilities fell 65% to $15 billion. That figure is forecast to double to $30 billion, says Burns, but might be flat should the situation remain sour.

Moreover, the economic slog will hamper chip sales for the rest of 2007. Burns says equipment sales to memory manufacturers, which make up 50% of semiconductor equipment sales, should pick up by the second quarter of next year, leading to an uptick in sales the following quarter. But it's unlikely to be enough to drive overall equipment spending higher.

While chip sales were good for the first half, Burns finds it unlikely the situation will hold. The timing could hurt, as the third quarter is traditionally the strongest for chip sales. "Chip sales growth will inevitably fall below average for the remainder of this year, at least," Burns writes.

Equipment sales, which have slumped over the past four quarters, including a 26% nosedive in the June quarter, will rise or fall based on chip sales. And the situation is murkier than in years past, Burns says. "Because the entire global economy is involved, today's level of uncertainty is higher than it has been in years, if not decades. Still, with a little bit of luck, the fabs planned for next year will actually come online and the industry will began another cycle of growth."

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