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Politics : RAMTRONIAN's Cache Inn

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From: NightOwl	2/15/2008 1:06:21 AM
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Wow... A real good conference call too! I don't know where all the analysts were from but they asked some really good questions this time around. All kinds of tantalizing "clues" flying around. The reference to the growth and size of the addressable printer cartridge market was the only thing that surprised me... still does for that matter. With the credit crunch starting to impact the business cycle and all I figured the printer segment would have been at risk for a Q4 dip... certainly not expecting substantial '08 growth. But the growth in customers and ASPs in this area was a real surprise to me. I've never even bothered Googling for any "clues" that FRAM and FRAM based ICs were going to have such a big market there. They also added some visibility to the growth trend in flexible AMR options for the metering market. In the first quarter last year they mentioned Sensus, Itron, Elster, and General Electric as companies with available meter models that include FRAM. Just based on my googling it seems that there is at least one AMR meter model at all the major and minor players in this market either by direct sale of chips or through modules made by ESE/DSCI or others. This seems to include some fairly sophisticated systems which may also include water and gas if the utility wants it: aclaratech.com na.sensus.com ...I am still blown away by the printer cartridge... thing. I just don't understand why the companies are paying the price premium for FRAM in that application. But then... neither do I understand why these cartridges cost as much as they do. <Hoo><Hoo> Anyway they mentioned Cherry, Hyundai, GM, Ford as expanding end customers for both in cab and out, high end and mid-range applications. It must be a rare auto line that doesn't at least have F-RAM enabled air bags in it. They also pointed out that today's sales are based on design wins obtained 2 years ago. But in truth the only real surprises were the "present" treatment of the expected "future" income taxes and the cartridge sales/market. Everything else was pretty much at the high end of their guidance. 0\|0

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