Seems RFMD seems to think their business is going to do very well going forward......I guess only time will tell.....
<<Press Release Source: RF Micro Devices, Inc.
RF Micro Devices Announces Strategic Focus Around Three Business Units and Forecasts Robust Revenue Growth Driven by Opportunities in Core Growth Markets
Tuesday April 20, 9:15 am ET
GREENSBORO, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 20, 2004--RF Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: RFMD - News), a leading provider of proprietary radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) for wireless communications applications, today announced its strategic focus around three core business units, comprised of cellular, wireless connectivity and infrastructure, with each unit reporting to president and CEO Bob Bruggeworth. RF Micro Devices forecasts the total market addressed by these core business units will grow to approximately $6 billion in three years, and it has identified opportunities it believes will drive the Company's revenue beyond $1 billion within three years.
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Bob Bruggeworth, president and chief executive officer of RF Micro Devices, said, "As we begin our fiscal 2005, our realignment around these three core business units demonstrates our commitment to growth in each of our markets, and more closely aligns our product development and marketing efforts with our customers and their end markets. We will continue to invest in the assets and resources necessary to grow in each of our core markets, and we forecast these investments will enable the Company to exceed one billion dollars in revenue within three years."
RFMD's three core business units are:
Cellular Business Unit
The cellular business unit is focused on RFMD's power amplifier (PA) products, small signal devices and transceiver solutions for major air interface standards, including GSM/GPRS, EDGE, CDMA and WCDMA. RFMD expects to increase its overall dollar content in cellular applications through continued PA market share gains and through sales of its POLARIS(TM) TOTAL RADIO(TM) transceiver solutions, which are currently ramping into production. With its entry into the transceiver market, RFMD effectively doubles its total addressable market in handsets to approximately $2.5 billion by combining the $1.2 to $1.3 billion market for transceivers for GSM/GPRS cellular handsets with the $1.2 to $1.3 billion market for cellular PAs, in which RFMD is the market leader. RFMD intends to leverage its customer relationships and market share in cellular PAs, which is approximately 50 percent, in order to take share in the transceiver market.
Wireless Connectivity Business Unit
The Company's wireless connectivity business unit focuses on developing and producing components and SoC (System on a Chip) solutions for Bluetooth®, global positioning systems (GPS) and wireless local area networks (WLANs).
The Company is experiencing strong design traction with leading handset manufacturers for Bluetooth products and is currently ramping production volumes of Bluetooth components for wireless headsets, printers, PC peripherals and handsets by a tier-one handset manufacturer. Through the Company's strategic relationship with Silicon Wave, RFMD supplies highly integrated single-chip CMOS radio processors as well as stand-alone CMOS Bluetooth radio modem solutions. The CMOS Bluetooth radio processors have a unique architecture that does not require external flash memory nor a bandpass filter, which the Company believes represents a cost advantage versus currently available solutions.
In GPS, RFMD is developing custom solutions with strategic partners and key customers to support location-based services in the handset and mobile computing markets. The Company is also developing wireless connectivity solutions, such as a GPS/Bluetooth module by leveraging its breadth of technologies and core competencies in process and packaging integration.
The Company's WLAN product sales have been driven by sales of PAs, radios and basebands for the retail market. In addition, RFMD is developing WLAN components that address the handset, mobile computing and video game markets, including a single-chip 802.11b/g solution for handsets and an 802.11a/b/g solution for mobile computing.
Infrastructure Business Unit
RFMD's infrastructure business unit is focused on components for wireless base stations. RFMD recently introduced innovative driver amplifiers that leverage proprietary thermal enhancements to RFMD's GaAs semiconductor process--enabling the highest output-power driver amplifiers available in the infrastructure market. Similar to the GaAs power amplifiers RFMD develops for handsets, RFMD's GaAs driver amplifiers enable superior efficiency, versus silicon LDMOS at a similar or better linearity, while covering all major frequency bands, including the 3G UMTS frequency band. The Company is also commercializing gallium nitride (GaN) for wide bandwidth base station PAs that operate at higher efficiency and better linearity than existing designs using silicon LDMOS. RFMD expects GaN PAs will improve the performance and lower the overall cost of wireless base stations, thereby proving to be a disruptive technology in the infrastructure market.
RF Micro Devices, Inc., an ISO 9001- and ISO 14001-certified manufacturer, designs, develops, manufactures and markets proprietary RFICs primarily for wireless communications products and applications such as cellular and PCS phones, base stations, WLANs and cable television modems. The Company offers a broad array of products - including amplifiers, mixers, modulators/demodulators, and single-chip receivers, transmitters and transceivers - representing a substantial majority of the RFICs required in wireless subscriber equipment. The Company's goal is to be the premier supplier of low-cost, high-performance integrated circuits and solutions for applications that enable wireless connectivity. RF Micro Devices, Inc., is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol RFMD. For more information about RFMD, please visit www.rfmd.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements that relate to RF Micro Devices' plans, objectives, estimates and goals. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "projects," "believes" and "estimates," and variations of these words and similar expressions, identify these forward-looking statements. RF Micro Devices' business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including variability in quarterly operating results, the rate of growth and development of wireless markets, risks associated with the operation of wafer fabrication, molecular beam epitaxy and test, tape and reel facilities and the Company's conversion from four-inch to six-inch wafer manufacturing, its ability to manage rapid growth and to attract and retain skilled personnel, variability in production yields, its ability to control and reduce costs and improve gross margins on highly integrated products, dependence on a limited number of customers and dependence on third parties. These and other risks and uncertainties, which are described in more detail in RF Micro Devices' most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, could cause actual results and developments to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any of these forward-looking statements. >> |
