Touch user interfaces have made significant advances in the consumer electronics market particularly for mobile phones and notebook computers, opening the door for adoption in other applications including white goods, computer peripherals, medical equipment, and instrumentation. Synaptics made its debut in the home appliance market earlier this year with the launch of the Samsung Hauzen ZERO air conditioner.
The standout products on day three of the SID 2010 conference is Universal Display's new PHOLED display architecture with a unique four-color, sub-pixel design, which promises to drive commercial development of all-phosphorescent active-matrix OLEDs and Sony's tiny rollable OLED display that can wrap around a pencil.
Smaller distributors were the only ones to post sales gains in 2009. Interestingly, two of the five distributors that posted growth last year -- Interstate Connecting Components and Sherburn Electronics -- derive 100 percent of their sales from interconnect products. Both of them also target the military/aerospace industry. Here are the top 10 sales leaders by ICs, passives/electromechanical devices, interconnects and computer products as well as sales growth.
Smart meter deployment to reach 212M units in 2014
Scottsdale, Ariz. — The number of smart electric meters deployed worldwide will increase from 76 million units in 2009 to about 212 million in 2014, particularly in North America and Europe, according to a study from ABI Research. “Smart” electricity meters, which enable two-way communication between the meter and the utility, may enable greater consumer control over energy consumption, says the market researcher.
A big driver for smart-meter growth is government funding. “In the U.S., $3.4 billion in federal economic stimulus funding was directed to smart-grid development in November 2009. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007) directly encourages smart-grid technology adoption by the states, and funds NIST’s efforts to develop a standards-based technology framework to facilitate smart grid adoption,” says Sam Lucero, practice director for ABI Research, in a statement.
In addition, the European Union recently enacted a “Third Energy Package” in September 2009, which aims to see every European electricity meter “smart” by 2022, Lucero says.
Lucero also says there is a possibility that China will replace 300 million electricity meters over the next five years or so.
The report, “Smart Meters for Smart Grids,” also indicates other growth drivers including efficiency and reliability gains, environmental concerns, improved customer service, energy theft reduction and increasing energy market competition.
But the road to smart metering has been bumpy. As an example, ABI Research cites the case of PG&E, an early adopter of smart meters, which has been accused by consumers of overcharging. PG&E stands by the accuracy of its meters, but it has created a public relations headache for the utility, according to Lucero.
See related articles:
Federal funding delivers $3.4 billion for a smart-energy grid
DOE awards $620M for smart-grid demo projects
Small businesses to get $37M in funding for clean energy technologies
NXP offers a low-power IC aimed at MPPT applications using PV cells or fuel cells. 
C&K Components offers a series of low-cost, miniature slide switches. The OS Series of RoHS-compliant switches feature a new high-temperature option for lead-free soldering.