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Politics : High Tolerance Plasticity -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gottfried who wrote (18477)	1/11/2003 6:33:33 PM
From: energyplay	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23153

I used to sell commodity op amps for National Semiconductor - 741, LM2902, etc. When you have more than 6 competitors who can supply the same thing, the parts tend to get commoditized to prices like $0.18 or lower (in 10,000 quanity). If only CREE and one Japanese firm can make blue LEDs, the price can stay high and margins over 80%. Add some more competitors making blue LEDs, and prices will tend to drop. One problem with the analog semiconductor business today is everybody is now moving into some other companies niche - this will erode the margins on analog semis. Bad news for ADI,MXIM,MCRL,LLTC, and a bunch of others who have enjoyed high margins for a long time.