Foxconn to replace human with robots

Have we reached the stage where robotic assistance is preferred over human manpower ?? Perhaps its quite early to comment but one thing has been definitely proved by the Taiwanese company, Foxconn that "ROBOTS" are fully geared up to replace humans at least in the manufacturing units as they are cheap, accurate and faster than human.

Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, known for assembling Apple's iPhones and iPads in China, plans to use more robots, with one report saying the company would use one million of them in the next three years, to cope with rising labor costs.

Foxconn's move highlights an increasing trend toward automation among Chinese companies as labour issues such as high-profile strikes and workers' suicides plague firms in sectors from autos to technology.

Contract manufacturers such as Foxconn, which also counts Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Nokia among its clients, are moving parts of their manufacturing to inland Chinese cities or other emerging markets. They are also boosting research and development investments to lift their thin margins.

"Workers' wages are increasing so quickly that some companies can't take it longer," said Dan Bin, a fund manager at Shenzhen-based Eastern Bay Investment Management, which invests in technology and consumer-related shares in China and Hong Kong.

"Automation is a general trend in many sectors in China, such as electronics. Of course some companies will consider moving their manufacturing overseas, but it's easier said than done when the supply chain is here."

The China Business News on Monday quoted Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou as saying the company planned to use 1 million robots within three years, up from about 10,000 robots in use now and an expected 300,000 next year.

Foxconn, whose listed units include Hon Hai Precision and Foxconn International Holdings Ltd, issued a statement later saying Gou told staff at its campus in Longhua, China, that he planned to move its more than 1 million employees up the value chain beyond basic manufacturing work.

Foxconn, which has been plagued by a spate of workers' suicides in its Chinese factories since last year, plans to use the robots for simple assembly line procedures, the statement quoted its chairman Gou as saying.

Oracle to question Google

Oracle will get to questionGoogle co-founderLarry Page under terms set by a US judge presiding over a patent suit pitting the business software titan against the Internet giant. 

Oracle can depose Page "for a maximum of two hours, excluding breaks" regarding the value of Android and whether Google intentionally infringed on patents at issue, Judge Donna Ryu said in a written decision on Thursday. 

"(Page) reportedly made the decision to acquireAndroid Inc., and thereby develop and launch the platform that Oracle now contends infringes its patents and copyrights," Oracle lawyers argued in their request to the court. 

"Oracle believes that Mr Page's testimony will likely be relevant with respect to a number of other key issues in this case as well, including the value of the infringement to Google," the letter continued. 

Google has asked to depose its chief executive,Larry Ellison, in the case. 

Oracle is accusing Google's Android software of infringing on Java computer programming language patents held by Oracle stemming from its recent purchase of Java inventorSun Microsystems. 

Google has denied the patent infringement claims and said it believes mobile phone makers and other users of its open-source Android operating system are entitled to use the Java technology in dispute. 

Google opposed the bid to question Page and three other current or former executives in the final weeks of the discovery process, arguing that Oracle was "gnashing its teeth with an eleventh-hour attempt to cram" in more depositions. 

Ryu is also allowing Oracle to depose two of its other targets, Bob Lee and Tim Lindholm. 

Oracle this week complained to Ryu that Google is not providing answers to questions about the Mountain View, California-based company's non-mobile businesses. 

Oracle wants Google to reveal details such as total search volume broken down by keywords and the Web content it indexes. 

Google has resisted with the reasoning that those facts are not relevant to the case because Android powerssmartphones and tablet computers, according to Oracle. 

Google has maintained that Sun, before it was acquired by Oracle, had declared that Java would be open-source, allowing any software developer to use it, and released some of its source code in 2006 and 2007. 

Oracle completed its acquisition of Sun, a one-time Silicon Valley star, in January of 2010 and subsequently filed suit against Google. 

Google-backed Android software is used in an array of devices that have been gaining ground in the hotly competitive global smartphone and tablet markets. 

Google won a round in the pre-trial proceedings when US District Judge William Alsup rejected a bid by Oracle to use an expert witness's testimony who said damages in the case could be as much as $6.1 billion. 

Alsup ruled that the Boston University finance professor's report "overreached in multiple ways" by factoring in Google revenues that went beyond the Android mobile platform. 

"Each and every overreach compounding ever higher damages into the billions - evidently with the goal of seeing how much it could get away with," Alsup reasoned. 

Alsup gave Oracle a chance to enter a revised estimate of damages prior to the trial, which was tentatively slated to start in October.

Apple's Mac OSX Lion crosses million mark

Apple has announced that its latest operating system the Mac OSX Lion has been bought and downloaded by over a million users in a day.

Apple also revealed that it was the fastest adoption rate for any OS released by the company.

According to Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller "Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic, Lion is a huge step forward, it's not only packed with innovative features but it's incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we've ever made."

For those who do not know Lion introduces more than 250 new features to the Mac, including Multi-Touch gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control, the Mac App Store, Launchpad, and a completely redesigned Mail app.

Interestingly Apple currently only offers the OS as an online download through the Mac App store for $29.99, but the company has announced a retail copy will be available in late August for $69.99 which will be sold on USB drives.

AMD back on track

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has been punished so hard for unexpectedly ousting its CEO more than 6 months ago that the second-quarter profit it posted Thursday gave investors a measure of confidence about its direction.

AMD shares rose 38 cents, or 5.9 percent, to $6.88 after the No. 2 maker of computer microprocessors reported its results. The stock had fallen by 30 percent since CEO Dirk Meyer was ousted in January.

The numbers were a rare bright spot in an industry in tumult.

They showed early signs of success for a new chip that combines general-purpose and graphics capabilities. AMD sold more than 7 million of the "accelerated processing units" in the second quarter, more than half of the total since they went on sale in November.

The chips feature an innovative design that represents the kind of creative risks that allow AMD to remain a technological trendsetter despite its perpetual underdog status against Intel Corp.

AMD is counting on the chips to help it gain market share against Intel, which controls 80 percent of the world's PC microprocessor market. AMD also needs the marketing buzz to help generate some excitement as the PC market flags.

Recent signs have worried investors.

Microsoft Corp.'s Windows business is seeing declines. Microsoft reported Thursday that revenue in the division that makes the Windows operating system, which powers the bulk of traditional PCs, fell in the latest quarter. The Redmond, Wash.-based company said revenue would have grown were it not for the launch of Windows 7 a year ago, which made comparisons tougher this year.

Intel has downgraded its view of the PC market. Intel on Wednesday cut its forecast for PC unit growth in 2011 to 8 percent to 10 percent over last year. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company earlier predicted low double-digit percentage growth. The cut weighed on Intel shares despite stronger-than-expected second-quarter results.

Last week market research firms IDC and Gartner reported that PC shipments worldwide are growing slower than expected, with the U.S. and European markets even contracting.

AMD has also been hurt by the weakness. But investors saw encouraging signs in the latest results, despite some troubles.

Revenue in its microprocessor division was flat. The division was hurt by lower revenue from server chips, suggesting losses in market share to Intel. Intel's revenue from server chips was up in the latest quarter.

And AMD's revenue in its graphics chip division fell 17 percent from last year.

AMD has long been a distant second to Intel and now is even further behind in the transition to smartphones and tablet computers. AMD's chips are primarily used in traditional desktop and laptop computers.

The lack of a permanent CEO has weighed heavily on AMD's shares. Meyer was forced out over the board's unhappiness with AMD's growth rate and its strategy for mobile. The growth of Apple Inc.'s iPad has disrupted the traditional PC business, with some analysts predicting tens of millions of people are now buying tablets instead of laptops.

Apple reported blowout results Tuesday that show the emergence of what CEO Steve Jobs calls the "post-PC era." Apple has now sold 29 million iPads since they went on sale in April 2010, and more than 128 million iPhones since they went on sale in 2007.

AMD earned $61 million, or 8 cents per share, in the three months ended July 2. That compares with a loss of $43 million, or 6 cents per share, a year ago. Adjusted net income was 9 cents per share, a penny better than the average estimate of analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue fell slightly short at $1.57 billion. Analysts expected $1.58 billion, according to FactSet.

AMD's third-quarter forecast calls for a sequential increase in revenue of 8 percent to 12 percent. That translates to $1.70 billion to $1.76 billion, in line with analyst forecasts for $1.71 billion.

Square got a new Venture capitalist

Square inc. announced that venture capitalist Vinod Khosla will join its board of directors. Khosla is already an investor in the mobile payment platform via his venture firm Khosla Ventures, which led Square’s initial financing round and participated in the Series B round last January. Square has raised a total of $37.5 million from Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, Sequoia Capital and Visa since its founding in February 2009.

Khosla will replace Gideon Yu who recently left Khosla Ventures to join the San Francisco 49ers as Chief Strategy Officer. Yu will continue to angel invest in startups. In fact, sources tell me he has already backed a super stealthy startup called The Usual that lets you order food from your smartphone (yes, this sounds a lot like Jonathan Kaplan’s new startup The Melt which Kaplan debuted at the All Things D conference last week only with a better name, and more to disrupt than grilled cheese sandwiches).

Square was cofounded by Jim McKelvey and Twitter’s busy cofounder (and now chairman and chief product guru) Jack Dorsey, who still runs Square with chief operating officer Keith Rabois, a veteran of PayPal, Yelp and LinkedIn. See my colleague Tomio Geron’s interview with Rabois here.

A board seat at the mobile payments startup is a little off-strategy for Khosla, the Indian-born engineer who started Khosla Ventures in 2004 to invest in what he likes to call his “imprudent science experiments,” everything from wood-based biofuel and new types of batteries, engines and lights to water purification, greener glass and clean cement. As Khosla recently told The Economist: “I am only interested in technologies that have a 90% chance of failure but, if they do succeed, would change the infrastructure of society in some radical way.”

It is still too early to tell whether Square will radically disrupt the way we use our wallets, but the company is certainly off to a solid start. Since launching in February 2009, Square has shipped over 500,000 card readers, processed a million transactions last month alone, and is on target to process $1 billion in payments within the year.And as Rabois told, the company not only plans to transform the payments industry, it also wants to change how small businesses operate and how consumers manage their personal finances.

Khosla can certainly help as it tries to achieve those ends. Before starting Khosla Ventures, Khosla made an early fortune as cofounder of Sun Microsystems. He joined John Doerr at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1996, where he mastered the art of incubating startups.

“Square is thrilled to welcome Vinod to our board. We have worked closely with Khosla Ventures since our inception and Vinod’s expertise, history and input will be a tremendous asset to our company as we continue to grow,” Dorsey said today in the press release.

Most Valuable brand of 2011

The ratings are finally out and its not surprising that the "hardware to software to animation studio" giant "APPLE" has been named as the most valuable brand of 2011.

Apple is now the most valuable brand in the world, ending a four-year reign by Google, according to the latest Brandz ranking from Millward Brown. The ranking values the Apple brand at $153 billion, up a whopping 84% since last year.