Get ready for wireless home monitors, architecture wars and better chip supplies | Synaptics CEO
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The semiconductor industry has experienced a backlash during the pandemic, with a few years of parts shortages resulting in product delays, inflation, and long waits for product purchases. We are currently going through a global economic downturn which could turn the tide and ease the shortage.
Amid this turmoil, Synaptics has continued to improve chips that go into a wide variety of products, including PC monitors, virtual reality headsets, and cars. Its touch sensor products go into just about anything you control with a finger. And more and more of these products are infused with artificial intelligence.
With AI at the edge, Synaptics image sensors can detect if someone has fallen. The company's chips enable wireless connection between monitors and laptops. It manufactures sensors that detect environments for VR headsets and components for a universal wired docking station for laptops.
One of the things it's helping bring to fruition is the new wireless docking station monitors that will be on display at CES, the major consumer electronics show in Las Vegas in early January. I spoke to Michael Hurlston, CEO of Synaptics, during an interview at a demo day at the company's headquarters in San Jose, CA.
EventGamesBeat Summit: Into the Metaverse 3
Join the GamesBeat community online, February 1-2, to review the results and emerging trends within the metaverse.
register hereHere is an edited transcript of our interview.
VentureBeat: Do you see much change in the market in terms of semiconductor shortages?
Michael Hurlston: Definitely, yes. You've been in the business for a long time. At the end of last year, the last calendar year, like everyone else, we were in scramble mode for tokens. The shortage and supply chain problem of semiconductors is well documented. We were in the middle of it. Probably towards the summer, maybe towards the end of the summer, we started to see a significant loosening, and in the fall a very significant loosening. Many stocks have been built up. We're going to have to work through this. It was relatively easy for us to stock up now. Not perfect. There are still areas where there are bubbles. But generally speaking, I would say the supply chain crisis is largely over.
VentureBeat: There is a silver lining to this in that the products are now available to end users. Perhaps the hardest part is that they don't charge the same prices.
Hurlston: Pricing is a conversation. Again, I would say generally it holds up. The biggest problem is the chip industry as a whole, just in round numbers as an example, say it takes a thousand parts to make a phone or a PC. T...
Connect with the leaders of gaming and the online metaverse at GamesBeat Summit: Into the Metaverse 3 on February 1-2. Register here.
The semiconductor industry has experienced a backlash during the pandemic, with a few years of parts shortages resulting in product delays, inflation, and long waits for product purchases. We are currently going through a global economic downturn which could turn the tide and ease the shortage.
Amid this turmoil, Synaptics has continued to improve chips that go into a wide variety of products, including PC monitors, virtual reality headsets, and cars. Its touch sensor products go into just about anything you control with a finger. And more and more of these products are infused with artificial intelligence.
With AI at the edge, Synaptics image sensors can detect if someone has fallen. The company's chips enable wireless connection between monitors and laptops. It manufactures sensors that detect environments for VR headsets and components for a universal wired docking station for laptops.
One of the things it's helping bring to fruition is the new wireless docking station monitors that will be on display at CES, the major consumer electronics show in Las Vegas in early January. I spoke to Michael Hurlston, CEO of Synaptics, during an interview at a demo day at the company's headquarters in San Jose, CA.
EventGamesBeat Summit: Into the Metaverse 3
Join the GamesBeat community online, February 1-2, to review the results and emerging trends within the metaverse.
register hereHere is an edited transcript of our interview.
VentureBeat: Do you see much change in the market in terms of semiconductor shortages?
Michael Hurlston: Definitely, yes. You've been in the business for a long time. At the end of last year, the last calendar year, like everyone else, we were in scramble mode for tokens. The shortage and supply chain problem of semiconductors is well documented. We were in the middle of it. Probably towards the summer, maybe towards the end of the summer, we started to see a significant loosening, and in the fall a very significant loosening. Many stocks have been built up. We're going to have to work through this. It was relatively easy for us to stock up now. Not perfect. There are still areas where there are bubbles. But generally speaking, I would say the supply chain crisis is largely over.
VentureBeat: There is a silver lining to this in that the products are now available to end users. Perhaps the hardest part is that they don't charge the same prices.
Hurlston: Pricing is a conversation. Again, I would say generally it holds up. The biggest problem is the chip industry as a whole, just in round numbers as an example, say it takes a thousand parts to make a phone or a PC. T...
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