Consumer Electronics Market Update
We’re all “shaking the dice” and trying to guess what will happen with the consumer electronics market. It doesn’t matter if you’re supplying connectors to the OEM, or if you are the OEM, we’re all trying to predict what the needs of an increasingly tech-savvy world will be—or how to adjust our plan for the consumer whose product budget is diminishing. more

Weathering the Storm
How will consumer electronics be impacted by the economy and changes within the marketplace? Connector manufacturers share their insights. more

Mass Data Storage Trends: HDD Technology
With the explosion of digitally converged computer, consumer, and communications applications, hard disk drive (HDD) technology has moved into many new high-volume applications, such as media players, iPods, GPS devices, and DVRs. In addition, a relatively new technology has arrived—Solid State Drives (SSD) and cards (SD) using NAND and NOR Flash Memory ICs. This has created new high-volume connector applications. In the future, a rapidly growing SSD technology will coexist with HDD, and in some areas may become dominant. more

Top 10 Trends in the Industry
#10: The Impact of Wireless Technology on the Internet
The impact of wireless technology on the Internet is the 10th and last trend that we’ve seen influencing our industry. In 2009, we’ll begin a new series. If you have been impacted by an 11th trend that you don’t want us to miss, let me know what you’re thinking. Email atanghe@connectorsupplier.com.

In 1952, the phrase, “I like Ike” was the talk of the day and the former Allied Supreme Commander of Europe, Gen. Dwight David Eisenhower became the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 through 1961. Among Ike’s many accomplishments was the establishment of the U.S. interstate highway system. Lesser known was his role in creating what is today referred to as the “information superhighway,” or the Internet. more

The China Connector Market
China’s manufacturing growth and product news continue to command our attention. How large is its connector market, and what industries do they dominate? more

And the winner is...
Michael Hollock, product engineer at Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. Thanks and congratulations!

Question: Researchers at Hewlett-Packard recently proved the existence of a fourth fundamental circuit element, joining the resistor, capacitor, and inductor. What is the name of this new passive element, what does it do, and what may be the first application in which it is used?

Answer: The new passive element is the memristor. The resistance of a memristor changes depending on the voltage level and the length of time voltage is applied. It has the potential to replace dynamic random access memory (DRAM).

Trivia Question for ConnectorSupplier.com Volume 4, Issue 21: The floppy disk has been used as a rotation storage media since its invention. In what year were floppy disks invented, and in what diameters were standard floppy disks produced?

When ConnectorSupplier.com presents a trivia question, you can win $50 for providing us with the right answer! You can also win $50 for providing us with a trivia question to use in future issues.

Send your answer to trivia@connectorsupplier.com. If there are multiple correct responses, a random winner will be drawn. You must subscribe to be eligible to win. Good luck!

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