How lucky for you that you managed to find the two, or was it three, vendors out of ~700 that somehow overridingly suffocated West with "an atmosphere of fear and mistrust" that "hung heavy in the air, with secrecy, suspicion and racism permeating the trade show floor." I was on the floor too and in the sessions, and I didn't get that sense at all; as Jan V. notes most ppl had low expectations and weren't negatively surprised. Maybe you just happened to run into some misguided PR? Agree with Global-Fab, hard to believe that legitimate suppliers would hold (much less voice) that opinion with so much of the industry & customers in Asia, and increasingly China. (jury's still out on India as seriously anything beyond systems & design)

Wow, funny a vendor would actually say the Asians are stealing their ideas. If they don't have a staffing of 20 - 50% Asian their products probably aren't that competitive anyway. Unless my 20 year experience and background is ill-informed, Silicon Valley cowboys have adopted the Indians and Asians as the driving force of their technology. So, the real 'enemy' is probably lurking within. Also, who is their largest customer? China? Ok, so they won't let a friendly, inquiring journalist see a demo, but they will crate up a fully working machine and send it off into the IP black hole to be reverse engineered? There are loads of current and forming OEMs in China, many of them staffed by the silverback former executives of the Western OEMs. Chances are that we will see improved, breakthrough processes on familiar looking platforms grace the halls of Semicon from unfamiliar sounding OEMs "at a fraction of our price". It is high time that the arrogant OEMs take a look at their price gouging practices and waning technologies. If it takes offshore competition and some healthy IP subterfuge, then so be it.

What an odd and unfortunate article. Thankfully, we must travel in different circles at SEMICON West. I did not hear or sense any "secrecy, suspicion and racism" at the show. This may have been a far larger concern many years ago when exhibitors displayed their equipment and their was a bit of trade war with Japan going on, but those days are long gone. Today, proprietary stuff is definitely behind closed doors and the topic of chief concern is not regional IP theft, but global demand shrinkage and a radically smaller cap spending plan by chip makers. Technology marches on, though, and the hot issues were about the lithography roadmap, TSV, nano materials, and adjacent market opportunities in LEDS, printed electronics, MEMS, and Solar. This industry became a truly global one many years ago, and any voices that suggest regional and nationalistic competition is a major issue in the industry is simply delusional.

Were we at the same show? I did not see/feel anyone reluctant to talk about new developments. Yes, the size was down, but most exhibitors that I spoke with were please with the contacts they made (although most admitted they had low expectations). Many of the sessions were well-attended. One bright spot (no pun intended) was the high brightness LED session. This sector has double digit growth, despite the downturn. TSV was also a hot topic. Yes, it is a downturn, but each quarter will look a little better and companies that position themselves for a recovery we survive. As far as Asia, many Japanese companies still have layoffs and plant closings. A difficult time there. I continue to see investments in advanced packaging in the backend. TSMC is fairly positive.

P.S. I think some of your comments on race are a bit exaggerated.

So they shoo away potential customers at a trade show, and then we'll undoubtedly hear them moan about how they didn't make any sales ?
I'd pity their position, but right now I'm a tad preoccupied by finding myself a job.

That's probably the most interesting article I've read about Semicon all week. Thanks for finding a different angle and spicing things up for us Sylvie. It's refreshing to read original pieces like this.

"...make our products for a fraction of the price..."

Hah, what we're going to see in the next few years is all those Asian ODMs & OEMs telling the USA/EU vendors to push off. The ODM/OEM will make their own brands for the same products and get the brand mark-up as well manufacturing profits.

Think LG, ACER & co., if you need concrete examples.

Outsourcing manufacturing was always going to bite the tier one & tier two names in N.A. & Europe - it just took long enough for the Asians to realize that (a) they were capable of designing the hardware themselves, (b) given (a) that all the western firms are doing is ***marketting***.

Seriously you get a booth at an industry trade show, then shoo away anyone who comes near it? what the hell? why not save the money on the booth and just invite people you actually trust to your hotel room or something to show your products?

With stupidity like that no wonder they are out of jobs, nobody wants idiots working for them and that is a perfect example of idiocy right there!!