US tech firms to double offshore services

The US technology services market will double its usage of outsourcing services in low-cost countries next year, reports Reuters. IDC says much of the work will, however, still be captured by US providers, as they beef up their operations abroad.

The offshore spending component of the US technology services market will rise to 10% of the total spending, or $16.3 billion, in 2003. IDC also expects offshore spending to more than quadruple to $46 billion, or 23% of the total, by 2007.

Samsung has displaced Intel as the world`s leading manufacturer of flash memory, CNet reports.

Samsung sold approximately $615 million of flash memory in the third quarter, a 50% increase from the same period a year ago, according to research firm iSuppli. The sales surge was enough to give Samsung a 20% market share, the largest share.

Toshiba placed second with $532 million in sales, a 61% jump from 2002 that amounted to 17.3% of the overall market. Spansion, the name of the now-combined joint venture between AMD and Fujitsu, grew 3% to account for $424 million in sales, or 13.8% of the market.

An executive of chipmaker AMD took a shot at rival Intel`s Centrino technology, calling the wireless component of Intel`s offering "garbage" and suggesting the company misleads the market, reports CRN.

Kevin Knox, director of worldwide enterprise business development for AMD, made the remarks during a keynote at the Enterprise IT Week conference held in Las Vegas, which is held at the same time as Comdex. "It`s not a processor," he said, although he then echoed Intel`s own view that Centrino is a bundle of a chipset, mobile processor and wireless technology.

"The chip is good," Knox then said. "The wireless technology they bundle with the chip is garbage."