Semiconductor Industry Trends
Show a 16-year-old kid on a cell phone from 10 years ago and they’ll call it an antique (if they even know what it is). Hand that same 16 year old a phone from five years ago, or even two years ago, and they’ll give you a look like you just gave them last week’s newspaper. The technology industry moves so fast that we are constantly outdating and updating ourselves.
We have a constant pressure to make devices that are better, cheaper, faster, smaller. And that technology goes into Smart phones, increasingly skinny laptops and tablets, and all the other electronics that make up our daily lives. So what’s next?
“Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Recently, we’re seeing the monopoly of established chip producers break up as semiconductor companies form alliances to spread out the heavy, billion-dollar costs of manufacturing. As that happens, talented design engineers will have a little more access to starting up their own companies and creating vast improvements to current technology.
The increased competition this could create in an already wildly competitive industry will likely spur innovations we’ve long been expecting, but haven’t quite managed en-masse. And, as developing nations increase their demand for technology, their issues will become our issues. Right now, energy is the major issue for everyone.
Demand for energy is on the rise, and current energy sources are in diminishing supplies. Although alternative “green” energy sources have been dismissed as too expensive in the past, the push towards developing solar power solutions hasn’t stopped. Developing more efficient solar cells will not only make the environmentalists here at home happier (and happier to pay for new “green” devices), it will make a huge difference in opening up global access to technology.
Energy efficiency is the first step. When light can power a Smart phone in Somalia, we’ll see far more competition in our industry than ever before.
