Qualcomm fastest growing semiconductor company, Intel still on top says Gartner

Qualcomm, designers of the highly popular Snapdragon series of chipsets plus a wide variety of wireless tech, is the fastest-growing semiconductor company according to Gartner. The two companies at the top, Intel and Samsung, were both affected by stagnation in the market in 2012.

Intel’s revenue slipped 3.1% year over year, but the company retained its leadership position for the 21st year in a row. Market share dropped a hair to 16.4% (down from 16.5%).

Samsung’s DRAM and NAND markets took a hit, but other segments picked up and the South Korean company managed a 3.1% year over year growth.

Qualcomm jumped into third position, up from 6th, with a massive 31.8% growth in revenue. That’s 18.2% better than analysts’ expectations. The company displaced Toshiba, who ranked fifth with a revenue decline of 9.8%.

Rank 2011	Rank 2012	Vendor	2011 Revenue	2012 Revenue	2011-2012 Growth (%)	2012 Market Share (%)
1	1	Intel	50,669	49,089	-3.1	16.4
2	2	Samsung Electronics	27,764	28,622	3.1	9.5
6	3	Qualcomm	9,998	13,177	31.8	4.4
4	4	Texas Instruments	11,754	11,111	-5.5	3.7
3	5	Toshiba	11,769	10,610	-9.8	3.5
5	6	Renesas Electronics	10,650	9,152	-14.1	3.1
8	7	SK Hynix	9,388	8,965	-4.5	3.0
7	8	STMicroelectronics	9,635	8,415	-12.7	2.8
10	9	Broadcom	7,160	7,846	9.6	2.6
9	10	Micron Technology	7,643	6,917	-9.5	2.3
		Others	151,343	146,008	-3.5	48.7
		Total Market	307,773	299,912	-2.6	100.0

Other than Qualcomm, only NXP managed to beat analysts’ expectations by over 10%. There are several companies that performed worse than expectations by over 10% too: Freescale, STMicroelectronics and AMD.

Overall, Gartner gauged that the semiconductor industry declined 2.6% in total revenues in 2012 compared to 2011.

40 Years Have Passed Since the First Ever Cell Phone Call

40 years have passed since the first public phone call was held between two people.

The caller, Martin Cooper who was a former Motorola employee, used a bulky Motorola DynaTAC 8000x phone which some people will remember as the phone they saw in GTA Vice City.

Martin called a reporter saying “I’m ringing you just to see if my call sounds good at your end” and his rival Joel Engel of Bell Labs telling him of the achievement: “Joel, this is Marty. I’m calling you from a cell phone, a real handheld portable cell phone”.

The rest is history.

“Joel, this is Marty. I’m calling you from a cell phone, a real handheld portable cell phone”

At the 40th anniversary of the historic event, the first public cell phone caller was honoured with this year’s Marconi prize.

Its just amazing too see how far the world has progressed from that moment onwards.

Here are some more facts about Cell Phones:

• in 1992 Nokia 1101 became the first GSM enabled phone
• Motorola StarTAC – back in 1996 – was first ever flip phone from any vendor
• Nokia 5100 was first ever phone with change-able casing, Nokia was later exclusively known for this feature
• Motorola MP 200 – in 2002 – is said to be the first Windows phone, with which users could read emails, SMS and install applications.
• Nokia N70 is considered as first largely sold phone with installable applications and games

Nokia, undoubtedly remained the king of cell phone makers during these 40 years. Nokia sold astonishing 250 million units of Nokia 1110 after it went on sale in 2005. Similarly, it sold 200 million Nokia 3210 and 150 million Nokia 1200. The famous Nokia 3310 was sold some 120 million times, at a time when cell phones were slightly rare thing to have.

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Launches a Revamped Website With Unregistered Script

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) works semi-autonomously to audit, enforce and collect revenue on behalf of the government of Pakistan. It is considered to be the guardian of Pakistan’s treasury and has two main arms through which it operates, the Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) and Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) with these units’ offices around the country.

Recently, FBR launched its new website after revamping it. The website covers all the latest updates through a constantly moving news ticker and bringing the cursor to a news item would stop it to make it easily readable. Another section covers ‘Hot Topics’ like 2% sales tax for zero rated sectors.

Sadly, the FBR is using TRIAL Version of Infragistics Web Components for its official website. NetAdvantage is a leading UI component provider for Desktop/Web based applications. This flaw is going to get the board a bad name and repute.

On the website, there are five prominent sections on the site through which users can Apply for NTN, File Tax Return, Pay Taxes, Sales Tax Refund, and another section covering Import/Export.

FBR now has a separate portal for taxpayers’ facility. The taxpayer facility online is the brainchild of FBR’s Chairman, Ali Arshad Hakeem. The portal will guide taxpayers in according with international practices. The portal is also user-friendly, since not every taxpaying citizen in Pakistan is web-equipped in skills.

All the links of online services provided by FBR can be accessed through this portal in an easily visible section. All necessary information and guidelines regarding duties and taxes applicable to vehicles were also recently updated on the FBR’s new website.

The new website also has a separate section for online forms for Registration, Sales Tax, and Income Tax. There is also a section for e-services like Online Taxpayer Registration and to make inquiry for NTN online. Users can also get their online ID, password and PIN. There are two lists which names active taxpayers and the dreaded black listed taxpayers.

One of the primary reasons for Pakistan’s economic burdens is lack of taxpayers. Despite 9 million people who are registered for taxation, only around 0.9 million people amongst the country’s 190 million population pays taxes. The majority of the population is said to be not paying even a single rupee. But, there are law-abiding citizens who do file tax returns on time, albeit in the minority.

For those users who were more comfortable with the earlier layout, the old version of the website is still available. As before, FBR is again asking for feedback on user experience on its website and suggestions on how to improve for the future. The feedback can also be given through FBR’s Facebook page.

One thing is for sure that FBR did an effort to make website appear vibrant with all the different colours on the main page and it is not disappointing. Although, the way it is performing, it seems like there is still some tweaking at the back going on to make the website run smoothly.

At one point during our review, it went offline, despite being “officially” launched, which does not sound surprising knowing that how these government agencies sites are maintained.

Tranchulas Brings Competition for Hackers in Pakistan

Tranchulas has announced ‘Capture the flag’, a competition to hunt for Pakistan’s top hacker at Cyber Secure Pakistan 2013 to reward them with exciting prizes including Nexus 7 and a chance to work at Tranchulas.On the upcoming event of Cyber Secure Pakistan 2013 at the Marriott Hotel Islamabad (20th April, 2013), this competition is for all the hackers out there to show their expertise and to win prizes.

There are no prerequisites for this competition and the registrations are totally free!

Participants will be given a scenario with VPN (Virtual Private Network) access and they will have to exploit that scenario on the spot in a given time frame of 6 hours (One working day). The first one to exploit all machines will get the prize.

Such ‘Hacker Capture the Flag competitions’ are arranged all over the world at premium hacking and security conferences.

This is wonderful opportunity for all the hacking minds who should capture this chance of ‘Capture the flag’ & to become Pakistan’s Top hacker. For registrations/inquires email: info@tranchulas.com.

NADRA Develops Voting Software for Overseas Pakistanis

As instructed by the Supreme Court, National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has developed a voting software that would allow the 4.5 million overseas Pakistanis to cast their votes in the coming general elections.

The software was acquired and developed for a total cost of $1.5 million and will allow overseas Pakistanis in 15 different countries to vote at 150 polling stations established in their respective countries. The 15 countries include US, UK, Canada, Saudi Arabia, UAE, France and Australia etc.

According to NADRA Chairman Tariq Malik, almost 70% of overseas Pakistanis are in Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries and there is a ban on political gathering and rallies in these countries due to which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would have to get permission for polling process in those countries.

“Permission from those countries and travel arrangements of NADRA officers have to be completed by April 5 because establishment of polling stations for e-voting will be a lengthy process. One computer, printer, thumb digitizer and secure internet connection will be required at every polling station.”

However, approval of the voting software is still pending as Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has yet to review the software and after ECP’s approval, the Supreme Court will be briefed regarding the software.

Mr. Malik said the facility of e-voting would be available for overseas Pakistanis through embassies and polling stations will be set up in designated missions. Installation of a biometric system will also be required in order to avoid casting of bogus votes.

Voters will be required to come to the polling stations on the voting day along with their CNIC and machine readable passports. Chairman NADRA has assured that the voting procedure will remain simple and individual’s vote will remain anonymous.

On completion of polling, the ECP will have electronic results available in its database. Constituency-wise aggregated result will be printed by the ECP and faxed to returning officers for inclusion in preliminary results.

“Although software appears to be safe, it has never been used in Pakistan, so NADRA will suggest that polling for overseas Pakistanis should be arranged two or three days prior to elections,” he said.