Chip distributors are back to where they were in 2003 in terms of quarterly sales revenues.
The latest figures from Europe's chip distributor association DMASS indicate how weak the first quarter of the year really was.
RS Components has branded up a range of LED lamps which it will be selling alongside franchise products from Osram at this year's euroLED exhibition.
Abacus Embedded has teamed up with MPC Data to offer embedded designers a service to port embedded systems running under Windows XP Professional to Windows Embedded Standard or Windows XP Embedded.
Shipments of large-area TFT LCD panels in April showed the first year-on-year increase for seven months.
Is this further evidence that even the consumer market - flat panel TVs are key TFT products - is starting to turn?
NIC Components has presented Future Electronics with its EMEA design-in distributor award.
Anglia has added to its passive component linecard with the signing of a franchise agreement with AVX, covering the UK and Ireland.
Tak Koutsoumanis, distribution manager, Northern Europe at AVX is pictured (l to r) with Katie Pooley, business development manager and Kerry Higham, product marketing manager at Anglia.
We may be at the bottom of this particular downturn but no one is talking of "green-shoots" just yet. Just look at the mobile market.
Cymbet the supplier of solid-state, rechargeable thin-film batteries and energy harvesting power storage modules has signed its first global distribution franchise.
German LED distributors are not just supplying components. They are also taking a lead in developing LED-based street lighting systems.
The reason is, they get support from local government spending departments which does not exist in the UK.
UR Group has completed an expansion of its manufacturing and testing facilities on the South Marston Industrial Estate in Wiltshire.
Who said sitting at the bottom of a market may not be the worst place to be?
I guess whoever it was took some comfort from the fact they knew where things were heading.
Is product availability a differentiator in the current market? Avnet Memec has joined the growing list of distributors, which already includes the likes of TTI, RS and Digi-Key, which thinks it might.
RS Components has secured what it called "first-to-market rights" for the introduction of specific motor controller and power supply products from Phoenix Contact.
Advanced Power Components has signed a distribution agreement with AVX, specifically covering the US manufacturer's high reliability capacitors including tantalums and ceramic capacitors.
These may be bleak days for distributors in the UK, but do I see the hint of a more positive trend in the latest market figures from Afdec?
Are component sales in any product currently growing at a rate of over 50%?
According to ultracapacitor supplier Maxwell Technology, the answer is yes. And the reason seems to be the growing interest in smart metering technology and renewable energy systems.
A former TI-er is spearheading Nujira's move into the US mobile market.
EBV Elektronik is to distribute a range of high brightness LEDs from Luminus Devices in the EMEA Region.
RS Components provided a positive note to an otherwise gloomy sector by announcing it is taking on 100 staff at its Nuneaton warehouse facility.
2001 Electronic Components has picked up embedded seller awards from Digi and Rabbit at their annual business review in Barcelona.
The UK's manufacturing sector is bumping along the bottom, but for how much longer?
