Will mobile phone growth assist recovery

Mobile Telecoms hits the news almost every day, but can it fuel the next spell of growth.

Reading about Vodafone's stock deal and the new Hop-on contract won by Viasystems, you can not help but wonder what the telecoms sectors has to offer EMS and PCB manufacturers in the coming years. Clearly telecoms played a massive role in the recent roller coaster ride enjoyed and endured by the market.

The Hop-on deal looks likely to provide growing business for Viasystems. Reading between the lines, I think Hop-on have decided that EMS is the way to go for them - allowing them to concentrate on their own core competencies and to develop their business as they would like. This was the trend that led to much of the growth in 1999 and 2000. Likewise, it was the telecoms industry that turned the tap off in early 2001 causing the market to shrink back at an unprecedented rate.

There are a number of products and technologies that lead to any growth period, or indeed any recovery. Telecoms still has a lot to offer. Much of the world's population is still without telephones in their home, let alone mobile telephones, new consumer markets like China and India will offer the telecoms industry opportunities for growth, and emerging technology will ensure that we all keep replacing our cell phones.

Telecomes products have the opportunity to develop in some very exciting ways. Merging with other technologies like PDAs and MP3s is leading to newer and more flexible handheld products with telecoms ability and Internet access.

The telecoms market is changing at an alarming rate. It has more change to go through, but it, without doubt, a major user of both PCB and EMS and is likely to remain so.