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To: S100 who wrote (115341)	3/10/2002 9:01:19 PM
From: Cooters	Respond to of 152472

I liked his explanation for the lack of Nokia phones on the Sprint network, "Nokia makes junky phones that do not work well", which sounds about right. There a couple US operators who have no problem selling their customers "junky phones that do not work well". Cooters

To: S100 who wrote (115341)	3/10/2002 11:15:36 PM
From: S100	Respond to of 152472

Mobile phone PCB manufacturers are all expecting higher shipment volumes for March, but stagnant market conditions continue to push prices lower. The average contract price for March is already 5-10% lower than for February and could easily drop 20-30% for the full year. The introduction of HDI (high-density interconnect) processing has made it even more difficult to control production costs. The snail-paced development of new GPRS (general packet radio service) and 3G wireless networks means mobile phone PCB concerns must sit tight and make do with profits made from current technology. In response, many have already crossed over into other high-end application markets. Compeq Manufacturing shipped between three million and four million mobile phone PCBs in February, mainly to Nokia, Siemens and Benq (formerly Acer Communications & Multimedia, ACM). Benq should ship more of Motorola’s T191 and T190 in March, and greater PCB orders from Benq should bring monthly output at Compeq to four million units. Market insiders pointed out that the functions on the T190 are simpler than the T191 and the price is lower. Motorola has already requested a lower contract price for the T191. More business from Benq may not necessarily bring Compeq higher profits. Wus Printed Circuit is shipping mobile phone PCBs to Alcatel and Motorola. It is responsible for supplying nearly 60% of Alcatel’s mobile phone PCB demand. Wus shipped a total of three million units in February. It is anticipating greater output in March, but prices are still shrinking. To pad gross profit Wus is now accelerating LCD substrate development. Unitech makes mobile phone PCBs for Sony Ericsson and Kyocera. The company said shipments in February – 1.5 million units – did not grow because of fewer working days. It expects to move 1.7 million units in March. With only a 10% gross margin, Unitech reported NT$40 million in pre-tax profits for January – a good example of how cost control and proper management can keep PCB companies lucrative. Gold Circuit’s mobile phone PCB shipments go to Nokia. February shipments were only between 500,000 and 600,000 units. It is now pumping up production of PCBs for servers and network service equipment to increase gross margin. digitimes.com Nokia may give profits warning, analysts say Analysts believe Nokia may give a profits warning in its trading statement next Tuesday. Nokia Networks is now expected to report full-year revenues of around £5 billion, a 6% reduction on earlier estimates. The downgrade by Merrill Lynch is based on a projection of 7% year-on-year growth in Networks revenues instead of the 13% growth previously forecast. Merrill is also pessimistic about the roll-out of 3G services. It believes 3G handsets may not be available in large numbers until late 2003, largely due to technical difficulties. And it also warns that pricing pressure will continue to accelerate, because 10 players are now fighting for a slice of a shrinking market. However, the broker remains confident that Nokia will continue to dominate its market, due to superior design and brand recognition. Kevin Dede of Wells Fargo Securities said: "We suspect the difficult telecom environment has performed more poorly than Nokia initially expected and that the company may issue reduced guidance for the year during its mid-quarter conference call." He believes Nokia will announce first quarter EPS of 0.14 euro and full-year EPS of 0.72 euro. But Mika Paloranta, analyst at Nordea bank in Helsinki, remains upbeat about the group's prospects: "Nokia gave itself considerable leeway in its financial targets, so I think it will be able to reiterate them on Tuesday. "Apparently, sales in China have been strong, with European sales weak as previously expected." Story filed: 15:49 Saturday 9th March 2002 ananova.com