Electronics firms have been aggressively pushing their product lineups in an attempt to increase their share of the growing automotive electronics market.
"Most electronics firms hope to leverage their advantages in consumer electronics to tap into the auto electronics segment," said Katty Hung (
Hung spoke to the Taipei Times at the 2006 AutoTronics Taipei show, Asia's first auto electronics exposition, which concludes at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall I today.
According to Boston-based consulting firm Strategy Analytics, the global auto electronics market is poised to grow to US$163.46 billion in 2008, from US$134.13 billion last year.
The lucrative auto electronics business has attracted significant interest from technology heavyweights such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (
Hon Hai is the nation's largest electronics company by sales and also supplies game consoles and mobile phones to customers such as Sony Corp and Motorola Inc. Asustek is the world's largest motherboard maker and also produces personal computers for Sony and Apple Computer Inc. BenQ is the nation's largest handset maker, while Quanta is the world's biggest notebook computer manufacturer.
For motherboard maker Universal Scientific Industry Co (
"GPS solutions will be our major focus for the next five years," said Eric Ho (
Having initiated research into GPS products three years ago, the company has been fine-tuning its software to offer drivers a user-friendly interface, and expects initial orders to pour in during the second half of the year.
China Motor Corp (
Ho added that Universal Scientific intends to market these products to tier-one suppliers in the US and Europe from next year.
"Our target is to boost the revenue contribution of automotive products from the current 4 percent to 10 percent within the next three years. But we have a good chance of achieving that target next year," he said.
Lite-On Automotive, meanwhile, is banking on tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS).
As the US has mandated that all vehicles sold after September next year must have TPMS, this is a big growth opportunity, Hung said.
With parent company Lite-On Technology Corp's (光寶科技)'s Guangzhou facilities set to support auto electronics production in the fourth quarter, Lite-On Automotive will be able to meet its clients' demands by churning out products in large volumes, she added.
Meanwhile, Everlight Electronics Corp (
"This is an inevitable trend for us as business prospects in auto electronics are just too tempting," said Bob Liu (
LEDs are now commonly used in vehicle dashboards and tail lights. Other applications for LEDs include front-turning signals, reading lamps, liquid-crystal-display screens and anything else that emits light in cars, he added.
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