Taking a bird’s-eye view of the challenging global economy suggests that this is a time for caution and reserve. But many of the decisions that we make this year will have long-term implications, since technology is never static and the product development that we do today will be designed into end products by our customers 2 to 4 years in the future. So no matter how long the Euro-zone economic contraction lasts or how strong future recovery will be, Linear Technology will continue to develop products with a focus on the industrial and automotive markets, with Europe continuing to be a key market for these products. Growth will occur in these markets largely independent of the economic outlook; these markets are going through a strong innovation cycle that drives the need for more electronics features enabled by Linear Technology analog products.
This has proven true looking back over the last 3 years. During these past 3 years of economic turmoil, the industrial and automotive segments of the analog markets have shown significant growth, growing nearly twice as fast as the overall analog market. Early on, we recognized this innovation cycle and have focused our new product design efforts toward the industrial and automotive markets. In the last 3 years, Linear Technology sales in the industrial and automotive markets had compound annual growth of 11.9% and 40.6%, respectively, significantly outgrowing the overall market and enabling Linear Technology to outgrow all of its competitors in the past 3 years.
We always have an eye to the more distant future, begging the question of what markets will drive growth and what products we should be designing today to capture this growth. The areas of smart networks and energy harvesting are emerging markets that have boundless opportunities. A future of billions of smart connected devices powered autonomously by energy harvesting devices offers staggering opportunities for analog products. Linear Technology’s SmartMesh wireless technology offers complete wireless network-based solutions using low power electronic components that can be powered by our energy harvesting products. These and other new products in development will enable new markets and support future growth no matter how uncertain the economic outlook.