Date: 15th Feb 2011
ST grows its business across multiple
categories
In the media round table held on 11th Feb 2011 at ST Microelectronics'
office in Noida, Carlo Bozotti CEO, ST Microelectronics
was jubilant for ST posting growth figures in all of its
product segments. The key growth areas listed by Carlo Bozotti
includes sensors and power ICs, consumer electronics, security
and ID, and medical electronics. ST is aggressively developing
3D enabling chips in video display electronics. Its mixing
MEMS and traditional silicon chips to develop innovative
new products.
The key strength of ST Microelectronics is its ability to
maintain lead in so many broad categories of semiconductor
chips; these days it's rare in semiconductor market. ST
is the chipmaker, which is equally good in reliability of
its devices, designing chips in advanced nodes, and also
its ability to lead in fast growing MEMS market. The low
cost manufacturing capability can be seen in its some of
the 8 bit MCUs which are sold at less than a $ and the MCU
kit (STM8S-Discovery hardware development kit) is sold at
$7. Technology prowess of ST can be seen in its H1N1 detecting
chips. Leading in one segment is not great, but leading
in multiple segments is really great, that too consistently.
ST has achieved this with less acquisitions compared to
other similar chipmakers.
One of the strength of this company is how it is managing
the emerging Asian market but retaining its strong position
in Europe. For this company China-Taiwan- HongKong region
is really a big market and is eyeing India semiconductor
market in a similar prospect. In Indian market it has strong
sales force to tap in the market in the early stage itself.
Finally what matters is the performance of its chips and
the quality support ST provides for its value-for-money
chips.
For the consumer electronics equipment such as Television
and Set Top Box, MEMS based sensor and power ICs, some of
the Industrial and automotive ICs, selecting ST's chips
is not bad.
In fact many of the Japanese Semiconductor vendors can be
matched to ST in offering broad portfolio of semiconductor
devices, but too much focus in DRAM and flash has made Japanese
vendors loose market share. The success of chip companies
depends in how well they provide the ready hardware reference
designs and the software code for their chips. Most of the
smart semiconductor companies leverage their Indian resources
to handle this task; ST is one among them.
However there is one complaint about ST where its customers
have faced supply hitches during peak demand and also ST
has competitors who are neck-to-neck in many of the segments
its serves.
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