'Hot' Tech Markets Leave Chinese EEs Cold |
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Posted By: Technology Staff Editor In: Information Technology
written by Dylan McGrath, courtesy of EE Times
The globalization of engineering has made some geography-specific trends more difficult to spot. For example, asked to identify the technologies with the most promising future, about half of the respondents to the 2009 EE Times Global Salary & Opinion Survey included system-on-chip (SoC) among their choices, making it the most popular overall. Results showed the appeal of SoC was remarkably consistent across China, Europe, India and North America (the question was not put to Japanese respondents).
But the data does reveal one very obvious geographic trend: Compared with their peers in other regions, engineers from China appear to be less enthusiastic and optimistic about newer technologies, including nanotechnology, system-in-package and embedded memories. Chinese respondents gave particularly low marks, comparatively, to photovoltaic, solar and other alternative energy technologies.
Survey participants from China, Europe, India and North America were given 20 categories of technology and asked to choose those with the most promising futures (each was allowed to choose multiple technologies). The percentage of Chinese respondents who identified a technology as "promising" was the lowest of the four regions for 15 of the 20 categories (in two of those instances, it was tied for lowest with another region), including those mentioned above as well as formal verification, XML and open scripting languages, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and silicon intellectual property.
In some instances the difference was eye-catching. Only 11 percent of Chinese respondents rated photovoltaic technology as promising, compared with 46 percent of European respondents, 45 percent of North American respondents and 21 percent of Indian EEs. This despite the fact that China is the world's leading producer and exporter of photovoltaic cells.
Only 10 percent of Chinese respondents rated nanotechnologies as promising, compared with at least 48 percent in each of the other regions.
Asked about the most "interesting" technologies, China gave the lowest marks in 11 of the 20 categories. Only 3 percent said nanotechnology was interesting, compared with at least 18 percent in the other regions.
Why do Chinese EEs appear to be so gloomy? Cultural bias in the survey? The oppression of a communist regime? Likely it has more to do with China's place at the low end of the electronics food chain. A significant percentage of the world electronics gadgets are built in China, and its producers are focused on products that make money now.
On the flip side, Chinese respondents did indicate relatively high interest in some categories, including Linux, 3G wireless, RFID and Bluetooth.
In fact, 28 percent of respondents from both China and India termed 3G wireless an interesting technology, compared with 16 percent and 10 percent of respondents from North America and Europe, respectively. This disparity likely reflects the stage of technology development in each region. While some 3G networks have existed in the United States and Europe for more than five years, they are still in the early stages in China and India.
Outside of China, respondents gave very high marks to embedded processors, with more than 50 percent of respondents from Europe, India and North America rating the technology as interesting (as opposed to just 36 percent in China). Embedded processor technology was rated as promising by 46 percent of Indian respondents, 40 percent of North American respondents and 38 percent of European respondents. Only 28 percent of Chinese respondents rated the technology as promising.
Thirty-one percent of respondents from both Europe and North America rated system-in-package technology as promising, compared with 18 and 21 percent of respondents from China and India, respectively.
Respondents outside of China also gave high marks to photovoltaic, solar thermal and the catch-all category of "other" alternative energy technologies. Indeed, respondents in Europe and North America ranked the three categories as among the most promising and most interesting of any in the survey.
More than 30 percent of the respondents from Europe, India and North America indicated that they were "likely" or "extremely likely" to consider working in alternative technologies. The question was also posed in Japan, where 45 percent of respondents answered either "likely" or "extremely likely."
Interestingly, 90 percent of respondents from India, 82 percent from North America and 78 percent from China agreed that green or environmental science presents promising opportunities for engineers. But only 34 percent of European respondents agreed with this statement.
This likely represents a European perception that jobs in such fields will go primarily to people in emerging economies.
More than 40 percent of respondents from every region surveyed--led by those in Japan, at 72 percent--indicated that they were incorporating "green" principles in their designs. p
Methodology
EE Times polled engineers in China, Europe, India, Japan and North America via e-mail between Sept. 8 and Sept. 22, 2009. The pool of respondents was drawn from subscribers to EE Times in each of the survey regions. The survey generated a total of 4,769 usable responses, 1,531 of which came from respondents based in North America and 1,657 from engineers in Japan. Europe contributed 120 completed surveys, China 618 and India 843. The survey was managed and analyzed for EE Times by Beacon Technology Partners.
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