Airoha Technology Corp (達發科技), the world’s No. 2 supplier of bluetooth chips used in Android-based true wireless stereo (TWS) earphones, yesterday said it aims to outgrow the industry next year, benefiting from market share gains and robust demand for bluetooth chips for headphones.
The company said it has set a goal to become the world’s top supplier of TWS bluetooth chips, challenging Qualcomm Inc’s leading position.
Airoha has gained the leadership position in gaming headphones, it said.
Photo courtesy of Airoha Technology Corp
The firm is 67 percent-owned by mobile phone chip supplier MediaTek Inc (聯發科).
Bluetooth for premium TWS earphones and GPS devices accounted for more than half of the company’s revenue in the third quarter, while fiber broadband and ethernet network chips made up 35 percent.
“We are optimistic about the outlook for bluetooth and GPS chips next year. With strong artificial intelligence [AI] capabilities, we believe we have a chance to see [revenue] trend up further,” Yuchuan Yang (楊裕全), a senior vice president in charge of Airoha’s wireless communications business group, told a media briefing in Taipei.
“The growth momentum next year will be very similar to this year’s,” Yang said. “The growth will be mostly driven by TWS earphone chips used in headsets.”
Yang declined to give a detailed revenue forecast for next year.
Based on a Global Market Insights projection, the world’s wireless stereo chip market is expected to expand at an annual rate of 20 percent from 2014 to 2032.
In the first 11 months of this year, Airoha’s revenue surged 39.48 percent year-on-year to NT$17.56 billion (US$540.62 million) from NT$12.59 billion in the same period last year.
The company counts the world’s premium headphone brands — Bang & Olufsen, GN Group and Sennheiser — among its customers.
To take advantage of growth opportunities, Airoha has identified TWS earphone chips with AI technology — with features such as adaptive noise suppression and voice-activated controls with improved natural-language processing — as a trend.
As the AI-enabled functions would require AI algorithms, the company uses low-voltage 12-nanometer chips made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Airoha vice president David Liang (梁仁昱) said.
Airoha is the first company to adopt TSMC’s low-voltage 12-nanometer chips, he said.
Another growth driver would be the emerging hearing aids market — standard bluetooth earbuds that amplify ambient sounds, the company said.
It is estimated that by 2050, more than 700 million people — or one in every 10 — would have hearing disabilities, Airoha said, citing a WHO report.
About 25 customers of Airoha have received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for over-the-counter hearing aids, it said.
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