TriQuint Semiconductor designs, develops and manufactures advanced high-performance RF solutions with Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), Gallium Nitride (GaN), Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) and Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) technologies for customers worldwide. They claim to be a leader in market diversity serving customers in mobile devices, 3G and 4G cellular base station, WLAN, WiMAX, GPS, defence and aerospace markets.
As part of our series titled ‘Global Trade Opportunities’ where we feature global brands eager to do business in India, Anurag Gaur from electronicsforu.com spoke to German Zhang, regional sales manager, TriQuint Semiconductor about their business strategy in India and their plans going forward.
Q. What makes your products (and solutions) stand apart in the industry?
A. We offer the industry’s largest selection of GaAs foundry processes and comprehensive support services. Our solutions, built with the industry’s largest in-house technology portfolio, enable quicker design turns, higher performance, and a smaller bill of materials. We are an award-winning provider of high performance solutions and have a worldwide network of design, sales and manufacturing facilities to serve our customers.
Q. Can you share details about your products and services?
A. TriQuint Semiconductor creates standard and custom products using gallium arsenide, surface acoustic wave (SAW) and bulk acoustic wave (BAW) technologies. These processes are built to be used in many different devices. In wireless handsets, TriQuint creates many components, including power amplifiers (PA), power amplifier modules (PAM), pHEMT switches, SAW and BAW filters, filter modules, antenna switch modules (ASMs) and front-end modules (FEMs). Their chips have been used in the manufacture of Apple’s iPhone and iPad, Palm’s Pre, HTC’s Android G1, and Amazon’s Kindle reader, among other consumer products.
TriQuint also offers foundry services, allowing TriQuint to manufacture its own products. Additionally, the company allows fabless semiconductor companies to use its facilities for manufacturing.
Q. How do you see India as a market for your products (or services)?
A. India with over 1 billion population opens a lot of doors for us. From a diverse market to diverse people and culture, moreover, the import needs of India are as big as 30-40 per cent, which gives us ample space to position ourselves. We are looking at India to create one of our major markets for our products. Our power amplifiers, antenna switches and other RF solutions can be sold well with an excellent marketing strategy.
Q. Which products or services do you expect to sell more in a country like India?
A. Our power amplifier modules, filter modules and our ASMs would sell really well in a country like India.
Q. What is your current strategy or plans with respect to the Indian market?
A. The structure of Indian market presently allows us to emphasise more on marketing of our products. We have few partners in India with whom we work strategically to expand our reach. Our reach in WLAN market is at its peak and that is something we would like to focus on in India. Moreover as 4G is not currently available in India, we would like to focus on it once it is introduced.
Q. Do you have any presence in India through your own office or partners?
A. Yes. We have partners and public relation officers who handle the marketing for our products in India. Those who want to directly get in touch with us can contact German Zhang, regional sales manager at [email protected]
Q. Are you looking for partners, such as distributors, system integrators, etc. for India?
A. Yes, we are looking for partners who would help us maximise our reach in the Indian market. We are currently also looking for a partner who could assist us with channel management.
Q. What are the challenges you foresee or have experienced while dealing with India?
A. The biggest challenge in Indian market is that the government reforms are very tardy. While other countries are moving to 4G and higher and better technological solutions, India is still struggling to benefit from 3G solutions, therefore, our components for 4G currently cannot be marketed in India.
For a country who has made a global impact and is one of the biggest consumer, we find the government to be a little slow.
Q. Have you ever engaged in any marketing activity to generate business from India?
A. We have not participated in any event and most of the marketing is handled by our PR but we are looking forward to participate in future events, if our budgets allow.
