News from the past week that caught my eye:

Companies and Products

Apple reported fiscal Q4 revenue of $51.5 billion, 22 percent above the prior year's quarter. They shipped 48 million iPhones during the quarter, 22 percent more than the prior year period. Earnings per share (EPS) jumped 38 percent to $1.96.

Fairview Microwave introduced six, zero-bias waveguide detectors that cover 26.5 to 110 GHz.

Ericsson Q3 network revenue declined 4 percent from last year's quarter and 8 percent sequentially. They reported softness in China, the Middle East and northern Europe. Earnings release.

Ericsson also announced 5GEx, a multi-organization project aiming to unify Europe's 5G infrastructure service market. Press release.

Google signed a deal to deploy Project Loon (Internet access via balloon) to Indonesia, a country of some 17,000 islands. Reuters article.

Keysight introduced a 50 GHz extension to the M9393A PXIe vector signal analyzer. In addition to the extended bandwidth, the unit's low noise enables fast searching for spurs.

Keysight also announced that Robert Rango joined their board November 1. He brings infrastructure and mobile experience from Broadcom and Lucent. Press release.

National Instruments (NI) acquired Micropross, a supplier of test systems for near field communication, smart cards and wireless charging test systems. The move will strengthen NI's wireless test portfolio. NI valued Micropross, a French company, at 95 million euros ($108 million USD).

Also, NI reported Q3 revenue of $300 million, 4 percent below the prior year period. NI's "core" revenue (defined as total revenue less revenue from their largest customer and subtracting the effects of foreign exchange) was up 5 percent.

To enable and accelerate small-cell deployment, Nokia is offering operators pre-qualified and approved sites ready for equipment installation.

During NXP's Q3 earnings call, CEO Rick Clemmer spoke about the RF power segment and the headwinds they're seeing in the BTS market.

As expected, Skyworks increased their offer for PMC-Sierra, from $10.50 to $11.60 per share. The increase, approved by PMC-Sierra's board, counters Microsemi's bid of $11.50 per share.

Wolfspeed (a Cree company) announced that Lockheed Martin has confirmed the reliability of their GaN technology, qualifying it for the Space Fence radar, which will track objects in space.

Zentech added an automated X-ray system, which will inspect solder joints and other critical features in the electronic assemblies they produce.

Markets and Technologies

Broadband — On October 29, 1969, the first data was transmitted on the ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet, between two computers at UCLA and SRI.

Juxtapose that with Chattanooga offering 10 Gbps Internet service to all 170,000 household and businesses for $299/month. Press release

Informative article by Oclaro on how all that data gets in and out of data centers and the evolving requirements for electro-optical transceivers.

Some U.S. government officials are worried about the vulnerability of transoceanic fiber-optic cables to Russian sabotage. New York Times article.

Mobile — Interesting profile of WeChat, the killer app that has created a mobile commerce ecosystem in China.

Defense — The DoD awarded the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) development contract to Northrop Grumman. This Washington Post article explains what the new bomber will replace.

If you come across news item you think I should cover, please send them to glerude@mwjournal.com. Have a good week.