Comments for High Technology Business Development

Comment on Customer Service – the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly by James Forster

James Forster — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:01:11 +0000

Wonderful post Ira. Its not about the answering a customers question its about understanding the problem and helping to solve it.
I recently experienced Apple’s policy with the recall of the original iPod nano. I purchased this 6 or 7 years ago when they first came out as a Christmas gift for my son…… roll forward a few years and I get the nano back and load my music etc. Been using it for a few years and a letter shows up from Apple indictaing that the Nano may be recalled due to a potential hazard with the battery. The serial number falls within the range of poteially defective products so I receive a box, prepaid to ship it to Apple.

The Nano is returned to Apple and 2 days before Christmas they send me the replacement – a new 6th generation nano with 6Gb of memory – the original had only 1Gb. I was blown away that Apple took this approach – I have shared tsi story with anyone who listens because it is simply incredible that so long after the warranty ran out they stodd beind there product – no pro-rating of the value, no cost adjustment …. a simple 1 for 1 replacement.

Re the telephone company – I could not agree more. The service model is unsustainable and we watch as one company after another fails. I think a better comedic sketch and one which still makes me laugh is Elaine May and Mike Nichols … Check it out ..

Or perhaps the scene in the movie falling down — I cannot look at a menu and see images of food without thinking about this

Now how do we get those who work for us in the federal government to understand the idea of service whether it is the DMV or any of the the other “agencies”. When we realize that we pay their salaries it just adds insult to the injury.

Comment on Silicon Valley Test Conference – Something New & Overdue by Silicon Valley Test Workshop – 2nd Year “Rocks” « High Technology Business Development

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 23:30:39 +0000

[...] for the second year (with a minor name change), the Silicon Valley Test Workshop is an unpolished gem. Looking past [...]

Comment on Probe Card Cost Drivers from Architecture to Zero Defects by IEEE Semiconductor Wafer Test Workshop – Productivity / COO – Session Nine (Wednesday) « High Technology Business Development

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 21:55:54 +0000

[...] For a summary of my presentation please see here. [...]

Comment on IEEE Semiconductor Wafer Test Workshop – Spring Pin Probing – Session Five (Tuesday) by Ira Feldman

Ira Feldman — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:32:25 +0000

@James – my pleasure! As you note, it’s not just what is on the slides but the additional context which I hope to share by my posts. And for some of the presentations, the questions asked by the audience are equally informative.

Comment on IEEE Semiconductor Wafer Test Workshop – Spring Pin Probing – Session Five (Tuesday) by James Forster

James Forster — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:14:08 +0000

Ira – Thanks. Was unable to attend so your comments/overview of these and other presentations adds to the slides and helps provide some of the background you only get from being there.

Comment on SEMICON West: What a difference a year makes by Ira Feldman

Ira Feldman — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 18:01:28 +0000

Hi Mark, Semicon West has been light on general tutorials recently. Most of the conference sessions are either working group / committee meetings or on a very specific topic. The only session that stands out that I saw on the main agenda in terms of Product Management is the tutorial Understanding and Using Cost of Ownership (COO) by Wright William & Kelly. Needless to say understanding how your customers look at cost is critical to appropriately valuing your products. I hope this helps. Ira

Comment on SEMICON West: What a difference a year makes by Mark D Godfrey

Mark D Godfrey — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:42:49 +0000

HI Ira,
Do you know of any courses in Product Management to be made available at Semicon West 2011?
Thanks,
//mark

Comment on IEEE Semiconductor Wafer Test Workshop – Opening Session & Keynote (Sunday) by IEEE Semiconductor Wafer Test Workshop – Probe Challenges – Session One (Monday) « High Technology Business Development

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:41:59 +0000

[...] discussed in Dr. Chen’s keynote address, Embedded Wafer Level Packaging (eWLP) is a new type of wafer level chip scale packaging (WLCSP). [...]

Comment on Probe Card Cost Drivers from Architecture to Zero Defects by andrei berar

andrei berar — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 13:57:03 +0000

Interesting and realistic. There are a few things that may not be obvious, but have huge impact on the Probe Card costs:
Design methodology – standardization of expensive components is crucial
Layout optimization (specially for # sites < 20) : define the layout based on minimum # of touch downs and constrains . Every extra touch down adds to cost of test
Maintenance & Repair costs

Optimize overall test cost vs. "localized" cost optimization

Comment on iPad Memories by Memory Alphabet Soup « High Technology Business Development

Memory Alphabet Soup « High Technology Business Development — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 16:46:46 +0000

[...] the device holds and not about how it holds these bytes or how well it performs. There is plenty of memory magic under the hood of the iPad worth [...]