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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sam Citron who wrote (57672)	12/18/2001 8:27:32 AM
From: robert b furman	Respond to of 70976

Hi Sam, They are relentless at continuously improving their manufacturing processes.A stock I have owned for many years had one of their divisions make a testhandler that final tested memory chips 16 at a time while still in the shipping tray.It was called "test in tray". This process resulted in the elimination of a protective band that all other dram makers must put on the outer perimeter of the chip (to prevent the metal fingers from being damaged during shipment). Unfortunately for my company (Cohu)- only Micron thought of this cost saving testhandler called "enterprise".Since this idea requires a production process change it never caught on with other dram makers - much to Daymarc's dismay. Just an example of why they surface as the lowest cost manufacturer.When they sell product at prices below cost - they are closer to cost than others and eventually they runoff the competition and end up with more market share.Miraculously pricing rights itself after consolidation and profits miraculously recover.The street marvels at the turn in profits and assumes they will go on forever - you know the rest.gggg Bob