Global smartphone sales may have peaked. After reaching nearly 1.5 billion units in 2016, global smartphone sales have since declined, contributing negatively to world trade in 2019 and suggesting that the global market may now be saturated. This paper develops a simple model to forecast smartphone sales, which shows that sales are likely to decline further. As tech companies shift to embedded services (cloud computing, content subscriptions, and financial services), the impact on global trade may also be shifting in favor of services exports mostly from advanced economies.

The enormous global demand for smartphones in recent years has created a new global tech cycle. In 2016 alone, global smartphone sales reached close to 1.5 billion, one for every fifth person on earth. In turn, this has engendered complex and evolving supply chains across Asia. We show that the new tech cycle cannot be captured by standard seasonality, but depends on smartphone product release dates. Decomposing cycle from trend, we also show that the sale of smartphones may have peaked in late 2015. Asia, however, continues to gain in importance as the global tech manufacturer.

A hands-on reference to the technical, commercial, and industrial aspects of VCSEL technology In VCSEL Industry: Communication and Sensing, a team of distinguished researchers and manufacturing professionals deliver a thorough and practical reference guide to vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) for young entrepreneurs, investors, venture capitalists, and researchers. The authors offer comprehensive descriptions of the technology involved, as well as a robust exploration of the industry and commercial landscape in which VCSELs exist. The book contains numerous illustrations and schematics of the anatomy of VCSEL product developments and an insightful discussion of the proliferation of VCSELs in photonics and optics. There is also a dedicated section on photoreceivers used for VCSEL-based data communications and sensing. VCSEL Industry: Communication and Sensing provides readers with an accessible, commercial perspective of an important technology while offering just enough technical detail to make sense of the subject. The book also includes: A thorough introduction to VCSELs, including discussions of semiconductor lasers, materials, wavelengths, and why VCSELs are attractive for photonics applications Comprehensive explorations of the VCSEL industry, including market demands, an industry landscape, descriptions of commercial products based on VCSELs, and business models Practical discussions of VCSELs for data communication, including high-speed VCSELs, gain and parasitic effects on bandwidth and speed, and form factors and standards In-depth examinations of VCSEL arrays for sensing, including high-power VCSELs in consumer electronics Perfect for early-career researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs, investors, and managers, VCSEL Industry: Communication and Sensing will also prove to be an invaluable addition to the libraries of executives from across the semiconductor industry.

This report describes the world economic outlook as of April 2018, projecting that advanced economies will continue to expand above their potential growth rates before decelerating, while growth in emerging markets in developing economies will rise before leveling off. It details global prospects and policies, including risks to the forecast, and essential determinants of long-term economic growth: labor force participation in advanced economies, the declining share of manufacturing jobs globally and in advanced economies, and the process through which innovative activity and technological knowledge spread across national borders.

This book provides a novel theoretical framework to explain the real source of competitive advantage of Chinese manufacturing. More importantly, such a framework can be generalized to analyze the potential of catch-up for large emerging economies in the globalization era. The book also provides insights for policy makers to rethink their design of policies.The rise of Made-in-China products has been widely attributed to low labour cost advantage and imitation advantage. However, as these two advantages are nearly innate to all late-developing countries, they cannot be regarded as the key factors that drive the rapid growth of China's manufacturing industry, or China's economy, over the past few decades. In this book, the author proposed a theory — 'the catch-up ladders theory', to explain the rise of China's manufacturing industry. The manufacturing advancement of any country is in essence a process of catching-up in both market and technology, during which enterprises will form a ladder-like holistic structure due to their differences in capabilities, technology and market positioning. In light of this, the continuity of the catch-up ladder will greatly determine the catch-up efficiency of an industry and even a country at large. Such a perspective is more applicable to large emerging economies, especially those with over one hundred million population and thus huge potential domestic market demand.

Businesses today face many obstacles, but one major hurdle is optimizing sales performance and achieving peak levels of execution. In recent years, there has been a significant decline in sales performance among businesses internationally. Many professionals attribute this disparity to the lack of attention towards certain business techniques including “Sales Peak Performance” and “Business to Business.” Strategies like this lack empirical validity and further investigation on the implementation of these approaches could significantly impact the business world. Achieving Peak Sales Performance for Optimal Business Value and Sustainability is a collection of innovative research on the methods and applications of various elements that influence sales peak performance including personal, organizational, and symbiotic determinants. While highlighting topics including emotional intelligence, personal branding, and customer relationship management, this book is ideally designed for sales professionals, directors, advertisers, managers, researchers, students, and academicians seeking current research on insights and advancements of business sustainability and sales peak performance.