As the novel coronavirus continues to spread around the world, government orders on restriction of movement, as well as concerns about the health of employees and customers, are leading to the first wave of technology company shut-downs.
Keysight Technologies announced Wednesday that to mitigate the risks to its employees, customers and suppliers, to help limit the spread of the virus and in response to local government orders, it is temporarily closing many of its global locations until at least the end of March.
A Keysight spokesperson clarified that the company “has decided to temporarily close all facilities in the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, Canada and Europe for two weeks starting March 18th or longer depending on local regulations, except certain repair and calibration facilities.” That includes research and development, sales, manufacturing and support facilities.
In Malaysia, Keysight has temporarily closed its facilities there through March 31, in response to a restriction of movement order. Its company headquarters in Santa Rosa, California, is also impacted by the shelter-in-place order from Governor Gavin Newsom.
Keysight said that the changes may impact its ability to meet its quarterly guidance, but that “due to the disruption and uncertainties resulting from this situation, the company is currently unable to quantify the full coronavirus impact” and will provide more information on its next earnings call.
In other news from Keysight this week, the company said it is working with smart home product manufacturer Viomi to test and validate its IoT products for the Chinese smart-home market. The company also launched four new two-channel models of its entry-level InfiniiVision 1000 X-series oscilloscopes: models with 50, 70, 100, and 200 megahertz of bandwidth. The InfiniiVision 1000 X-series use the same basic technology as Keysight’s higher-performance InfiniiVision equipment, the company said; they start at a price of $480.
In other test news:
–Anritsu said this week that it has bolstered its Field Master Pro MS2090A to increase its IQ data capture capabilities. The test company says that the instrument is the first handheld analyzer to be able to capture 110 megahertz of IQ data for spectrum analysis, and added that between that capability and its sample rate, the MS2090A “can capture and stream twice as much data as any other handheld analyzer.”
The company also made available a virtual exhibition of the equipment that it had planned to showcase at the Optical Networking and Communication Conference & Exhibition (OFC) in San Diego. Although the OFC conference was held last week — with a blend of in-person attendance and increased online participation options — the test company was one of the exhibitors which decided not to attend due to coronavirus risks.
–Grand View Research expects to see the automated test equipment market expand at a compound growth rate of 3.4% through 2027 and reach $8.68 billion, driven by high demand in consumer electronics, more widespread use of system-on-chip technology, higher global smartphone penetration and increasing use of electronics in vehicles.
-Device OEM OnePlus recently said that it is making a major investment in its 5G device labs. Full story here.
-Crowd-sourced network data company Ookla is tracking the global internet impacts of COVID-19. Read RCR’s story here, and you can follow Ookla’s analysis here.
