众所周知，恩智浦半导体(NXP Semiconductors)是从荷兰皇家飞利浦(Philips)独立而出。而在历经多年的发展转变后，今天的恩智浦，已经成为一家拥有鲜明个性和纪律的公司。
在恩智浦现任CEO Rick Clemmer的带领下，恩智浦大幅精简了产品组合。经过该公司管理团队精挑细选后的产品线，目前都已在市场上居于领导地位，或正展现出无穷的发展潜力 ──这为我们指出了“成为市场领导者的明确道路，”Clemmer说。“专注特定领域，是最重要的关键。”
此外，还有另一个关于恩智浦公司转型的重要标志。Clemmer在稍早前接受《EE Times》专访时表示，今天的恩智浦“实际上是一家中国公司。”
什么？
恩智浦挹注在中国的资金比其它任何一个国家都要多，Clemmer解释道。此外，这家荷兰公司在中国拥有的员工人数达8,000人，他补充道。“我们至今仍然是一家荷兰公司的唯一理由，是因为我们仍享受着荷兰的税收减免优惠。”
事实上，把恩智浦称为一家欧洲芯片公司有点不对，因为恩智浦在大中华区的出货营收已经是欧洲的两倍，而且每三个恩智浦员工，就有一个在中国公司。
当然，没有人对这些事感到惊讶。由于中国在零组件采购、系统设计和制造面的快速成长，恩智浦近年来已经在中国市场扎下了强大的基础。
恩智浦CEO Rick ClemmerYZDesmc
上周，Clemmer公布了该公司第一季财报。首季营收达9.78亿美元，较前一季成长5%。“我们已经接近原先预期的最高目标，”Clemmer说。
当被问及此次成长中有多少部份是来自于市场的周期性回升时，Clemmer的回复相当保守。他仅表示，恩智浦仍处于正面周期性反弹的早期阶段。Clemmer指出，其成长主要是来自于该公司的特殊设计订单。好消息是，恩智浦的转变，已经开始看到具体成果了。
Clemmer特别看好该公司的识别业务，其服务领域包括电子护照、交通票券、电子卷标、金融卡和电子钱包等。特别是，Clemmer表示，恩智浦电子钱包业务中的NFC技术与安全零组件，已经被大量应用在智能手机中，今年第一季的占有率已达30%，该公司其它的识别业务也成长20%。
本文下一页：中国暂停稀土供应最头疼
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
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市占率与英特尔相当
事实上，恩智浦是最先投入NFC技术的厂商，并声称其NFC产品在智能手机和平板计算机领域大幅领先高通(Qualcomm)、博通(Broadcom)和英特尔(Intel)等竞争对手。恩智浦的NFC瞄准的智能手机和平板计算机客户包括有苹果(Apple)、诺基亚(Nokia)和三星(Samsung)。
Clemmer表示，恩智浦的NFC产品(包含无线技术和安全零组件)已经被应用在130款的智能手机之中。“在热门的电子钱包市场，恩智浦拥有和英特尔相当的地位，”他表示。
随着智能手机使用族群日益增多，愈来愈多人使用内建电子钱包功能的智能手机，在结帐机器前挥动手机来结帐。Clemmer表示，至今已经有许多智能手机内建NFC技术了，目前，NFC只不过在等待整体付费基础建设的部署而已。
根据一家瑞典市调机构Berg Insight最近发布的研究显示，2011年，搭载NFC功能的手机在全球市场销售量成长十倍，达3,000万支。预估到2016年整体销售可达7亿支，年复合成长率(CAGR)可达87.8%。
稀土短缺影响照明业务发展
与识别业务不同，恩智浦的照明业务在过去两季呈现下跌趋势──照明是该公司一年前开始推动物联网(Internet of Things, IoT)时的关键技术。
藉由为每一颗家中的灯泡赋予唯一的IP地址，NXP正在推动其节能大计。未来，使用者可以透过智能手机、平板计算机、PC或电视来个别打开、关闭或调节灯光。Clemmer将照明业务的营收未达目标归咎于稀土短缺。
中国决定停止数十种稀土金属的生产，这不仅拉高了萤光灯(CFL)的成本，也迫使CFL制造商们延迟在其灯泡设计中添加驱动IC的计划。这些驱动器可用来调 光、为灯泡增加不同色彩或连网能力。随着CFL灯泡价格上扬，“CFL制造商要添加这些驱动器IC也不是件容易的事了，”Clemmer说。
根据该公司的规划，恩智浦的 GreenChip 将能应用在无线家用传感器网络，进而展开能源计量、智能家电与安全系统的部署。其JenNet-IP网络层软件是专门为了将各种设备连接在一起所设计的，能够在GreenChip智能照明方案中实现超低功耗的无线连接。
本文下一页：中国的五年节能计划
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
相关阅读：
• 富昌电子荣膺“2011年度恩智浦半导体杰出设计”奖
• 互连移动是未来趋势，车载网络三大创新
• 除了苹果，咱能关注点新的玩意吗？YZDesmc
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中国的五年节能计划
然而，恩智浦仍然保持乐观。Clemmer表示，两星期前，中国的科学技术部官员出访欧洲时，曾造访荷兰的飞利浦照明(Philips Lighting)以及位在Eindhoven的恩智浦公司。
Clemmer表示，照明是家庭中能源消耗量排名第三的应用，他同时指出，中国非常重视节能，这也是中国目前至2015年为止所规划的五年计划中的重点所在。
尽管目前遭遇CFL照明的挫折，但Clemmer对于在中国发展智能照明仍深具信心。NXP最近针对部份选定的合作伙伴公开了其JenNet-IP软件堆栈。
在识别和照明以外，恩智浦的第三个焦点是汽车电子。恩智浦表示，该公司已经在无钥匙汽车系统市场中居主导地位，目前正计划进一步扩大开发基于NFC技术的多 功能汽车钥匙。“我们已经为无钥匙汽车系统添加许多智能特性了，接下来，我们还将在下一代的智能钥匙中使用更多的半导体组件，”Clemmer表示。
相较于其它相对较年轻的半导体公司，恩智浦的运气向来不错，特别是该公司在NFC智能手机、无线连接照明、智能无钥匙汽车系统等领域的领先，而这些成绩，都与这家半导体业者过去在飞利浦半导体时代，和过去数十年来其原有母公司所做的大量研发投资有着密切关系。
然而，接下来的问题是：当承袭自原有公司的技术优势用尽时，恩智浦接下来要做什么？
Clemmer看来是有些许担心。他表示，“我们将继续针对我们每一项领先的产品持续投资……如大幅降低NFC芯片的功耗和尺寸等。”
虽然恩智浦无法投资每一种看起来可行的无线技术，不过，“我们现在更有选择性，”Clemmer表示。事实上，在Clemmer的想法中，‘专注’才是重点。
资料来源：恩智浦半导体 /单位：百万美元YZDesmc
-HPMS 全名是高性能混合讯号部门(High Performance Mixed Signal segment)；STDP全名是标准产品分部门(Standard Products segment)；MFG & OTHER则是制造服务与其它企业营收(Manufacturing Services and other corporate revenue)。
资料来源：恩智浦半导体 /单位：百万美元YZDesmc
-AUTO是HPMS汽车业务；IDEN是的HPMS识别业务；WILI是HPMS无线基础设施、照明和工业应用；MCC是HPMS行动、消费电子和运算业务；STDP是标准产品部门。
编译： Joy Teng
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
参考英文原文： NXP today: 'Practically a Chinese company' ，by Junko Yoshida
相关阅读：
• 富昌电子荣膺“2011年度恩智浦半导体杰出设计”奖
• 互连移动是未来趋势，车载网络三大创新
• 除了苹果，咱能关注点新的玩意吗？YZDesmc
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NXP today: 'Practically a Chinese company'
Junko Yoshida
NEW YORK – For anyone who has known NXP Semiconductors since it was the Dutch giant Royal Philips’ subsidiary, NXP today feels much transformed. Instead of pledging changes every quarter, NXP has grown into a company with its own distinct personality and disciplines.
Under the leadership of Rick Clemmer, NXP’s CEO, the company has drastically slimmed its product portfolio. The company’s management team has cherry-picked product lines that already have either a commanding market position or clear potential – showing “a path to become a leader,” Clemmer explained. “It’s all about focus.”
Further, there is another vital sign of the company’s transformation. Clemmer said last week in an interview with EE Times, NXP today is “practically a Chinese company.”
Say what?
NXP makes more money in China than in any other single country, said Clemmer. Moreover, the Dutch company employs 8,000 people in China, he added. “The only reason we are still a Dutch company is because we enjoy our tax breaks in the Netherlands.”
Indeed, to call NXP a European chip company is a little misleading, since NXP’s shipment-based revenue in Greater China has become twice as big as that in Europe, and one in every three employees at NXP is located in China.
Of course, nobody should be surprised. NXP has established a strong presence in China’s growing market because China is where a greater number of components are procured, designed into systems, and manufactured.
Last week, EE Times sat down with Clemmer who was here for the announcement of the company’s first quarter financial results. With $978 million in revenue in the first quarter, NXP showed a five percent sequential growth. “We delivered near the upper end of our original guidance range,” Clemmer noted.
When asked how much of that growth owes to the cyclical upswing of the market, Clemmer responded cautiously. While saying that NXP is “in the early stages of a positive cyclical rebound,” Clemmer noted much of its growth actually came from company-specific design wins. The good news is that NXP is beginning to see “tangible results,” he said, of the company’s transformation.
Clemmer was particularly bullish about NXP’s Identification business, serving a range of markets including e-passports, transit ticketing, tags and labels, contact banking cards and e-wallets. In particular, Clemmer said, For NXP, the e-wallet segment – where NFC technology together with security components have been embedded in smart phones – has jumped by 30 percent in the first quarter, while the rest of the company’s identification business grew by 20 percent.
Intel-like market share
In fact, NXP, a frontrunner in NFC technology, claims a huge lead in NFC-enabled smartphones and tablets -- over such competitors as Qualcomm, Broadcom and Intel. NXP’s customers in NFC-featured smartphones and tablets are said to include: Apple, Nokia, and Samsung.
Noting that NXP’s NFC (its wireless technology and security components included) is being designed into 130 smartphone models, Clemmer claimed, “NXP has an Intel-like position” in the red hot e-wallet market. One third of those products are shipping today, he added.
As more consumers carry smartphones, transactions completed by simply by waving an e-wallet-enabled smartphone (without a physical credit card or cash) at the point-of-sale are fast becoming a reality. Contrary to the notion that it may take a long time before the NFC chips actually get inside smartphones, Clemmer said, a number of smartphones are already shipping with NFC in them, often without the user’s knowledge. The NFC feature is just waiting to be turned on as the payment infrastructure develops, Clemmer explained.
According to a recent research by Berg Insight, a Sweden-based market research firm serving the telecom industry, global sales of handsets featuring NFC increased ten times in 2011 to 30 million units. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 87.8 percent, shipments are forecast to reach 700 million units in 2016, according to the firm.
Rare earth hiccups
Unlike its identification business, where NXP fell flat over the last two quarters, its lighting business was a key thrust of the company’s Internet of Things initiative launched a year ago.
By giving a unique IP address to every light bulb at home, NXP has been promoting an energy-saving future in which the user can turn lights on and off individually, dimming or creating scenes from his smartphone, tablet, PC or TV. Clemmer blamed a shortfall of projected revenue in the lighting business to a shortage of rare earth.
China's decision to shut down or nationalize dozens of rare earth metal producers drove up the cost of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), forcing CFL manufacturers to delay a plan to add IC drivers to their light bulbs. Such drivers would enable dimming, coloring or networking capabilities in each light bulb. As the price of CFL bulbs shot up, “CFL manufacturers couldn’t simply afford to add those IC drivers,” said Clemmer.
NXP’s GreenChip-enabled light bulbs, according to the company’s scenario, will operate on a wireless home sensor network being developed for energy metering, smart appliances and security systems. The JenNet-IP network layer software, designed to tie things together, enables ultra-low-power wireless connectivity in the GreenChip smart lighting solution.
Energy reduction -- China's five-year plan
NXP, however, remains optimistic. Just two weeks ago, when officials from China’s Ministry of Science and Technology were in Europe, their visit in the Netherlands included meetings with Philips Lighting and NXP in Eindhoven, among others, according to Clemmer.
Describing lighting as “the third largest source of energy consumption at home,” he noted that China is “absolutely serious about ‘energy reduction,’” which is one of the key targets of China’s current five-year plan spanning to 2015.
Despite current setbacks with CFL lighting, Clemmer is confident of China’s interest in what smart lighting can offer to energy reduction. NXP has recently opened up its JenNet-IP software stacks to selective partners including those in China to foster the development of unique apps, according to NXP’s CEO.
NXP’s third main focus – aside from identification and lighting – is automotive. Already dominant in the keyless car entry system market, the company is plotting to expand further by developing NFC-enabled multi-function car keys. “As we add more smarts into the keyless car entry system, we increase semiconductor content in the smart key by three to four times,” Clemmer explained.
Unlike other relatively new semiconductors companies, NXP’s good fortune – particularly leading positions in such areas as NFC-enabled smartphones, wirelessly connected lighting, and smart keyless car entry systems – appears closely tied to its former self (Philips Semiconductors) and the parent company’s large R&D investment over the last few decades.
With no disrespect for today’s NXP team, one question comes to mind: What will NXP do once it finishes eating the fruit of legacy technology advantages that date to a previous regime (before it became NXP)?
Clemmer seems little worried. He said, “We continue to invest in the advancements of each of our leading products… like substantially lowering the power and reducing the chip size for NFC chips.”
While NXP in old days couldn’t help investing in the development of every conceivable wireless technology on the planet, “we are now much more selective,” he added. Again, in Clemmer’s mind, it’s all about focus.
-HPMS is the High Performance Mixed Signal segment; STDP is the Standard Products segment; MFG & OTHER is the combination of Manufacturing Services and other corporate revenue.
-AUTO is the HPMS Automotive business; IDEN is the HPMS Identification business; WILI is the HPMS Wireless Infrastructure, Lighting and Industrial applications) is the HPMS Wireless Infrastructure, Lighting and Industrial business; MCC is HPMS Mobile, Consumer and Computing business; STDP is the Standard Products segment.
责编：Quentin
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