Business briefs

• Technology markets analyst Research and Markets has announced the addition of The Development of Camera Phone Module, 2005-2006 report to its range. The global mobile phone shipment in 2005 was 795 million units, 57% of which (about 455 million units) featured cameras. R&M predicts that 85% of mobile phones will be camera phones by 2008, with a forecast shipment of 800 million units. The market value of camera phone modules will rise from $2 billion in 2005 to $4.8 billion by 2008, showing "very promising prospects", according to the analyst.

• Heptagon, a pioneer in UV replicated micro-optics, has established a US subsidiary Heptagon USA, Inc. and opened an office for sales, marketing and business development in San Jose, California. Heptagon claims that the introduction of its proprietary Reemo high-volume, low-cost wafer-scale manufacturing process will enable high-quality micro-optic components to compete with conventional optics in many applications in consumer electronics, telecommunications and other fields.

• The Florida Photonics Center of Excellence at the University of Central Florida has been awarded $4.5 m to establish a new program on advanced laser technologies, with the aim of further developing the state's laser-based economy. The Laser Technology Initiative, one of six programs recently approved across Florida, will focus on nanophotonics, biophotonics, and optical imaging and communications. To further enhance the initiative, UCF Provost Terry Hickey and other state programs are providing an extra $9.6 m to enable the hiring of staff and to build the infrastructure.

Fiber & Networks

• Corning has announced Q4 sales of $1.37 billion and net income of $646 m. Excluding a "special gain" of $158 m, the company's Q4 income would have been $488 m, which exceeded both company and Wall Street expectations, Corning said. "Our Q4 results capped an outstanding year," said Wendell Weeks, president and CEO. "This was the fourth consecutive year that we recorded significant improvement in the company's profitability and we reached a new all-time record for net income and earnings per share.

For the full year of 2006, Corning recorded sales of $5.2 billion, an increase of 13% over 2005 sales of $4.6 billion. The sales increase was the result of continuing strong growth in Display Technologies and improvements in most of the company's other business segments. Corning had net income of $1.86 billion, versus $585 m in 2005.

• The Optical Network Systems Division of NEC Corporation of America (NEC), has reported that according to market researcher Ovum-RHK, NEC experienced the "greatest sequential revenue growth worldwide for Q3 2006, and also had the highest sequential revenue growth among the top 10 optical networking vendors worldwide. Ovum-RHK's report Market Alert: 3Q06 Global ON recognizes NEC's strong global performance, marking a 55%revenue growth from Q2 2006, and a 34% revenue increase over Q3 2005.

"NEC's global optical networking sales reached nearly $3.1 billion in Q3 2006, the highest quarterly spending since Q1 2002. Spending growth is coming from a number of sources, including mobile backhaul, broadband aggregation and backhaul, the influx of video traffic, and the move of network operators to converge their networks over a single optical infrastructure," said Dana Cooperson, VP and practice leader, Network Infrastructure, at Ovum-RHK.

• Opnext, a developer of transmit and receive optical modules and components has announced it has shipped more than 250,000 10 Gbit/s transceivers. The company offers a broad portfolio of products in the 10G family including 300-pin, XENPAK, X2, XPAK and XFP, encompassing all port types within these form factors. "Reaching one quarter of a million 10G transceivers shipped further validates our position as an industry-leading supplier," said Tadayuki Kanno, senior VP, Opnext modules business unit.

• PMC-Sierra this week reported results for its Q4 2006, which ended December, 2006. Net revenues in the quarter totaled $102 m, a decrease of 13% compared to $117 m for Q3 2006 but 31% up on Q4 2005. Q4 net income was $4.7 million compared to $17.4 m in Q3 2006. The Q4 2006 net loss was $42 m compared to a net loss of $11.5 m in Q3 2006. The company said that the greater net loss in Q4 was primarily due to an increase in tax provision. "In 2006, PMC-Sierra's revenues and market position improved following the acquisitions of the Avago storage semiconductor business and the passive fiber-to-the-home business," said Bob Bailey, chairman and CEO. "We now have a more diversified product line and broader customer base, and we're well-positioned in both the service provider and enterprise storage markets as we enter 2007."

People

• Ocean Optics has appointed Ling Sun to lead its newly established Shanghai, China office, Ocean Optics Asia. As Director of Asia Operations, Sun will provide a regional approach to the sales and service of the company's optical sensing, display optics, and biophotonics technologies in the rapidly expanding Asian market.

Giallorenzi

Thomas Giallorenzi is to join the Optical Society of America( OSA) as senior director of science policy. He will provide strategic direction on the Society's scientific programming, leveraging his technical expertise to help expand OSA programs and activities, with a specific focus on the Society's conventions and meetings portfolio. Giallorenzi is a fellow of the OSA, having provided volunteer support in numerous committees from meetings to publications and awards. He has held many positions on OFC and CLEO/QELS steering committees.