Electronics companies face acute challenges to stay competitive, remain innovative and ensure shareholder value. From a corporate standpoint industry leaders must address immediate economic imperatives - optimizing, rightsizing and realigning where necessary - while they aggressively build winning models for the future. From a product perspective the relentless pursuit of innovation, this sector is struggling with the parallel demands of cost reduction whilst providing the innovation which fuels growth. Electronics sector advances will depend on the ability to assess life cycle costs, which include materials costs, and overcome stringent management policies and limited investment funding. Performance optimization, miniaturization, and integration of different classes of materials into multifunctional components are also becoming essential as advanced electronic materials are finding a prominent place in many applications. And what does that future hold? As an industry, Electronics will become horizontal, with the proprietary and vertically integrated business model of the past "unbundled" into component layers that can be assembled more cost-efficiently by others. It will also be hyper-competitive, with the maxim "innovate or die" becoming more meaningful than ever.   NEC Mars Electronics   SONY Hi-Grade