Maxim 2016 Summary and 2017 Outlook
What’s your view on overall performance of semiconductor industry in 2016? With more and more mergers and acquisitions occur breaking transaction recorded, what effects will be brought to the semiconductor industry?
In 2016 we expect to see slight growth in the overall industry but stronger growth in the markets in which we are focused, namely automotive, industrial, and consumer. In the longterm, consolidation benefits the industry overall. Maxim continues to pursue an aggressive plan for growth and profitability for our shareholders as an independent entity.
How’s Maxim performance in 2016 and what strategies led to this? Which products and applications stands out? Why?
Our strategy to diversify and grow Maxim revenue is working:
- Maxim’s automotive business expands each year at a rate well above market. We are capitalizing on increased content opportunities in infotainment, safety and battery management systems and winning designs by providing high-performance products to a broad range of customers.
- Maxim is growing its factory automation content, which supports increases in the company’s core industrial business.
- Maxim is diversifying its consumer revenue across a variety of tablets, wearables, peripherals, smartphones and gaming systems.
What do you think about the trend of semiconductor industry in 2017? What factors will change the competitive landscape?
In automotive, I believe semiconductor content will continue to grow in the double digit percentages. We will see driver assistance features being added to cars that will improve safety. An example of this is an increased number of optical cameras being added to cars to enable a vision system for accident avoidance. Such new systems will require high-speed video distribution throughout the car. With this, we will see dramatic increases in computational capability required to process vision system data, which in turn requires more efficient power management. These trends play to Maxim’s strengths in video distribution and power management.
In addition, wearable equipment for vital-sign monitoring is rapidly evolving, and Maxim is committed to providing innovative wearable solutions for customers. Some factors to keep in mind for these designs include low power, form factor, and ease of design.
What kind of technology trend and segment market will Maxim mainly focus on in 2017? What are your main challenges?
Maxim’s growth drivers include automotive, industrial and wearables/healthcare:
- Automotive: Infotainment is the largest part of our business today and continues to do well. We will continue to invest in ADAS, our technology around power management and serial link technology, which enables high-speed video distribution in the car for infotainment, driver assistance and safety.
- Industrial: Digital factories demand distributed control with lower power, smaller size, higher performance, and increased productivity. Maxim, with its strong IP portfolio and long history specializing in analog integration, will create a new pathway to Industry 4.0.
- Wearables/Healthcare: The critical element today is to accurately measure bio signs such as heart rate under different motion conditions, while offering low power and long battery life. Maxim’s IP and knowledge for wearable health and fitness applications allows us to integrate multiple technologies in a tiny, low power package.
- Also, an overarching trend in the industry is the need for higher data security within products. Integrating security into a design early on, with consideration to how security is implemented, is critical. And for the security to be effective, it has to be implemented at multiple levels throughout the design, from sensor to the cloud. Maxim continues to invest in its DeepCover® secure microcontrollers which bring together advanced cryptography and physical security to provide the highest level of protection against physical tampering and reverse engineering.
What expectations do you have on Maxim’s performance in 2017? And based on what?
Maxim will continue to develop analog ICs for the automotive, industrial, healthcare, mobile consumer, and cloud data center markets.
Our Automotive business expands each year at a rate well above the market. We are capitalizing on increased content opportunities in infotainment, safety and battery management systems and winning designs by providing high-performance products to a broad range of customers.
We are growing our factory automation content, which has supported year-over-year increases in our Core Industrial business for the last two quarters. We forecast this to continue for reasons I will discuss later.
Finally, we are diversifying our Consumer revenue across a variety of tablets, wearables, peripherals, smartphones and gaming systems. This is helping stabilize our consumer revenue.