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SANTA BARBARA, CA – Design Solutions Inc. (DSI) has opened a new design center in Munich, Germany, Design Solutions GmbH. The facility provides engineering, design, simulation and prototype manufacturing services to the electronics industry. The state-of-the-art design center also includes a high-level FPGA and ASIC development group.

Sean O’Neil, president and CEO of DSI, said, “With the opening of this new design center, the German market will benefit from product engineering expertise across all disciplines. This includes electrical engineering, performance simulation, component and product packaging, PCB design, performance and reliability analysis, and much more, such as mechanical design, software development, prototype PCB fabrication, product assembly and testing.”

O’Neil also said that the opening of the new facility “helps DSI further its business plan of providing local design/engineering centers to global technology hubs, in order to provide local project management and support, while leveraging low-cost regions for a majority of the engineering work.”

DSI has seven locations in the U.S. and two in Europe.

LAS VEGAS - Sales of consumer electronics in the United States are projected to exceed $155 billion in 2007, or a 7 percent growth year-on-year, according to a Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) forecast.

The semi-annual industry forecast came out on the eve of the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the world's largest consumer technology trade show. "The consumer electronics industry has outdone itself once again, with revenues totaling $145 billion in 2006, and we're on track for another year of healthy growth," said CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro.

CEA projected that display technologies will continue to be the leading category and will account for $26 billion in revenues for 2007. Next-generation consoles will make the video game market one to watch in 2007. MP3 players will continue to drive the audio market. CEA projected that MP3 players will account for 90 percent of the $6 billion in revenues for the portable entertainment market. Thirty-four million MP3 players shipped in 2006 and an additional 41 million are expected to ship in 2007.

The mobile electronics market drivers include portable navigation and GPS devices. Other product categories that will see substantial growth in 2007 are PCs, accessories and digital imaging devices. In 2006, shipment volumes of laptops outpaced desktop PCs. Consumer electronics accessory sales will also grow in 2007, reaching $11 billion, due to the consumer's continued focus on system portability. Digital imaging shipments are expected to exceed 32 million units, with revenues projected to reach $8 billion in 2007.