Updated: Silica Unveils MCU Initiative
http://blog.epn-online.com/distiblog/2011/02/updated-silica-unveils-mcu-initiative.html
Last week Silica announced its Core ‘n More strategy to improve its performance in the European microcontroller market. It is clear that this is a long-term strategy for Silica.
Karlheinz Weigl, Silica’s Regional Vice President, Central Europe and the company’s executive sponsor for this initiative has set the company a target of a 15% share of the MCU market by 2015.
This increase is destined to arrive via a concentration on performance in the middle and top end of the MCU market, with the ARM-based Cortex M3/M4 and A8/A9 products from suppliers like Texas Instruments, Freescale, NXP and STMicroelectronics to the fore.
Weigl insists that Silica will still be very active in low-end 8-bit MCUs and be alert to support opportunities from non-ARM-based suppliers, Renesas, Microchip and Intel.
Weigl would not be drawn on potential revenue increases. “Too much can change in the markets, as we have seen in the past three years,” he comments.
“That’s why I emphasise market share,” he told Disti Blog. “If the microcontroller market grows 10% we want to grow more than that. If it declines,same outcome, we still want to grow share.”
Silica is not being afraid to pump in the necessary investment. It will add people, notably in technical support, and strengthen its inventory of products and the accompanying software tools and development boards. Its team of field application engineers will attend week long in-depth training sessions. “We will have more than 70 certified MCU field application engineers,” Weigl remarks. Account managers numbering 150, will also undergo training on the MCU products.
Alongside this Silica plans an extensive marketing campaign to increase branding and awareness.
The focus on ARM is because “it is the fastest growing architecture,” says Weigl.
Silica will focus its efforts initially in Germany, Italy, the UK and France.
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