Taking over editorship of the publication is Hans Jaschinski. Hans is a highly experienced and esteemed editor, and has worked at Hüthig for over 25 years.

Although Siegfried will no longer work for Elektronik Industrie, he will continue to be a presence in the electronics industry working as a freelancer.

We wish both Siegfried and Hans all the best in their new roles.

It was on the main comment and opinion page and occupied an area 6cm by 7cm within a column of otherwise white space. This isn’t just a literal error; it’s a howler.
 
The Guardian (we can name names because, with an average daily circulation of 230,000 copies, this is hardly secret) playfully self references its reputation for spelling mistakes and minor factual inaccuracies by running a regular corrections section. But it has the advantage of an established reputation and being a successful media outlet with many loyal – and forgiving – supporters. Most organisations are not so fortunate and cannot afford to make blatant errors in the media.

Which brings me to my point. Pinnacle, like most technology PR agencies, spends a lot of time developing strategy, coming up with creative ideas and analysing how best to communicate with our clients’ target markets. What we, perhaps, don’t highlight enough is our ability to execute consistently, even though this is the linchpin of any social media or traditional PR campaign.

One error or broken promise can destroy trust and result in the loss of a reputation that has taken years to build. This has always been the case with journalists; recently extended to bloggers; and now, thanks to social media, one unhappy customer can share his or her complaint with the whole world before a company has a chance to address it.
 
Which is why attention to detail remains as important in corporate communications as it ever was.

The minister recently visited LPRS in Witney, a supplier of short-range radio devices used for industrial and commercial control and communications systems, who claim to have reduced the final cost of their product by over 10% whilst keeping the manufacturing within the UK. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Mr Cameron visiting such companies. Last year he visited the McLaren Technology Centre and of course not just him but all three parties are backing up the Queen Elizabeth prize for Engineers, launched last November.

Also the hunt is on for the Government to find a PR agency to promote the importance of UK engineering in education, consumer and corporate worlds too… let’s see who bags that one!

Yesterday, the Internet went on strike in protest against new anti-piracy laws which the US Congress is looking to introduce.

Major websites including Wikipedia, Wordpress and Reddit effectively created an “Internet blackout” by going offline between 8am and 8pm EST to highlight what many consider to be a significant threat to how we use the Internet.

If introduced, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) would expand the ability of US law enforcement to combat online piracy and copyright-infringement. Clearly these are valid and widely supported intentions, but the drafted bill is so broad in its definitions that it would also expose many law-abiding businesses and individuals to new and uncertain liabilities; and it is for this reason that the protest took place.

There is so much controversy around the new legislation because under the terms of the proposed Act, websites accused of copyright-infringement would be forced to shut down immediately; without the opportunity to remove the offending item. This is clearly a major concern for those websites that host user generated content – the most obvious example being YouTube. 

Commenters are also suggesting that the Act is a threat to online freedom of speech and that it could even bring about the end of ecommerce.

Whatever the implications of the bill, the question of how the authorities are going to enforce these new laws seems to have been overlooked. When you consider that over 48 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute and that millions of blog posts are published to sites like Wordpress every single day, what kind of resources would be required to manage this?

What are your thoughts?

Do you think the SOPA bill will be passed? And will it have as big an impact as many are suggesting?

The geekier among us may know that this is only one of many areas where the cult series has influenced, or at least predicted, future tech trends. This infographic neatly summarizes the current state of thinking in the Trekkie camp. Beam me up now, please…

Japan’s consumer tech leadership in the 1980s was fuelled largely by a domestic population with a seemingly insatiable appetite for the latest gadgets. Second-hand (or pre-owned) had no Japanese translation, by all accounts. This meant that corporations could invest in product development with confidence that anything with novel functionality – faster, smaller, more features – would sell. And, having developed these products backed by a guaranteed return at home, they could happily sell them in US and Western European countries where they would be sure to have a lead on their local competitors.

All this has been underpinned by the astonishing innovation and problem solving skills of the electronics industry, which has risen to every challenge brought to its door – or, more accurately, that it has sought out. The result is that the price of consumer goods has fallen consistently in real terms over the past three decades making the most remarkable technological wizardry available to almost every household in the developed economies. The fact that we, the public, just use it to timeshift reality TV soaps, watch them in 3D and then discuss them via social networks on our smartphones is not the fault of the technologists.

So, should we feel guilty about the banal use of all this impressive technology? Not at all because, elsewhere, the same underlying blocks are being used to deliver better tools for medical care, safer cars and cleaner and more efficient energy systems from which we will all benefit. And that’s why no one really wants a future proof TV.

The turbine that spectacularly caught fire was apparently locked at the time due to worries that the National Grid would not be able to cope with the surge of nature’s own energy made possible by such high winds! Other turbines were shut down or had their speeds reduced in response to complaints from residents living up to three miles away about the humming sound emanating from them when in use.

Wind, wave, solar and other renewable energy sources clearly represent the way forward for energy production though it seems there are still plenty of issues to be addressed to make best use of the technology. Perhaps that this is a good time to remind ourselves that the problem of energy demand needs to be addressed from both ends. Whilst energy creation is what typically grabs the headlines and the plaudits, the electronics components industry is quietly making great progress in significantly reducing the energy consumption and increasing the efficiency of everyday products and systems so that we don’t need as much power. Many different types of components are making a contribution, from LEDs to replace conventional lighting forms to highly efficient ICs that integrate previously separate power hungry functionality into a single low power device.

According to Henning Wicht at IHS iSuppli, “The Italian government’s attractive incentives boosted the country’s installations massively, giving it the top position worldwide.” Although Germany continues to be a strong market, Wicht comments, “installations in the country stalled in the first half of 2011, and while the market recovered in the second half, the increase was insufficient to generate growth for the whole year.”

World’s Largest Deployment of Photovoltaic Capacity

[Source IHS iSuppli]

This data is backed up by a report recently published by IMS Research, which predicts 2011’s total installations should constitute over 24,000 MWatts (a 24% increase on the 19,000 MW witnessed in 2010). It also shows that a considerable gap is forming between the leading pack and other countries – with the top three players representing close to two thirds of the worldwide market.

Top Ten Photovoltaic Markets

[Source IMS Research]

Pinnacle Marketing has a key role in promoting the advance of photovoltaic technology through its PR, SEO and social media services. It represents companies that supply the high performance power ICs, analogue ICs, passive components, connectors and batteries that are enabling greater uptake of renewable energy resources across the globe.

The biggest winner has been Californian based microprocessor giant Intel. It managed to outgrow the industry as a whole and raise its market share to nearly 16%. It has also managed to pull away from second placed chip manufacturer, Korea’s Samsung, after several years of seeing its lead eroded. The third and fourth placed manufacturers swapped their positions, with Dallas-based Texas Instruments, thanks to its acquisition of National Semiconductor, edging ahead of Toshiba Semiconductor. The highest climber during this period is ON Semiconductor, jumping seven places up to 19^th in the rankings. The Phoenix-based power semiconductor company has nearly doubled its revenue after buying up Sanyo Semiconductor.

Pinnacle Marketing works with three of the world’s top 20 semiconductor suppliers, providing multi-region services ranging from PR to search engine optimisation.

The complete list of top 20 suppliers is as follows:

Predominantly composite technology companies and aerospace engineering, if the European Governments need any ideas on how to grow our economies then they could do worse than look at this show. According to the organiser the show is the biggest ever doubling in size over last year. Let’s hope the multinational visitors found something that made their trip worthwhile. My guess is they did.