Listen to this articleBelow is our recent interview with Thomas Seiler, Chief Executive Officer at u-blox:
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to your company?
A: By now, you’ve probably heard about the Internet of Things. At u-blox, we create the hardware, the services, and the solutions that make the IoT tick.
Driven by deep R&D investments and propelled forward by strategic acquisitions, we’ve grown from a Swiss university spin-off that helped democratize satellite-based positioning technology to a multinational industry leader in positioning and wireless communication solutions for consumer, automotive, and industrial markets.
Today, we deliver the accurate, real-time location data, reliable short-range and cellular communication, and secure, low-power cloud connectivity that you, your car, and your business rely on every day.
Q: Any highlights on your recent announcement?
A: We just launched the u-blox LARA-L6, the smallest LTE Cat 4 module with global coverage and 2G/3G fallback. It’s a tiny cellular modem with a data pipe large enough to stream high-resolution video over LTE Cat 4 cellular networks.
We pre-certified the LARA-L6 on all major mobile network operators to make it easy for customers around the world to develop size-constrained applications for global markets. Video surveillance cameras, dashcams, high-end telematics solutions, gateways and routers, and eHealth devices are just a few examples that come to mind.
And because no one wants their connected devices to be hijacked, we added a slew of security features that uniquely identify the device, authenticate its communications, ensure robust end-to-end encryption, and tightly control access to its firmware.
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Q: Can you give us more insights into your offering?
A: Think of u-blox as a one stop shop for all the components you need to build connected solutions that will set you apart from competition. With a growing portfolio of chips, modules, and services fully designed in-house, we can guarantee maximum control over all aspects of our offering, from silicon to cloud.
The resulting independence from third-party suppliers strengthens our resilience in times of supply chain crunches and gives us full control over the quality of our offering. At the same time, the centralization of expertise within our company is an essential enabler of our expert technical support.
Q: What can we expect from your company in next 6 months? What are your plans?
A: For the past 25 years, our mission has been to continuously add more value to our customers. We see no reason to change that going forward. Expect to see further efforts to spearhead miniaturization of the technologies behind the IoT, higher precision, increased security, and new ways to drive down power requirements. And as IoT devices become more and more complex and sophisticated, expect tighter integration of complementary technologies.
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Q: What is the best thing about your company that people might not know about?
A: Over the years, we built a solid reputation as a world leader in global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver technology. But while GNSS is where we started out 25 years ago, we’ve since diversified our product offering, which now includes a broad palette of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular modules, as well as complementary location, communication, and positioning services. Customers used to reach out to us source a technology. Increasingly, they are reaching out to us to source entire connected solutions, from the silicon all the way up to the cloud.
