Taiwanese Embedded System and Industrial Computer Suppliers Boost Presence at CeBIT

To take advantage of Europe's economic recovery, Taiwanese suppliers of embedded systems and industrial computers showcased their newest and most impressive products from March 10 to 14 at CeBIT Hannover 2014, one of the world's biggest ICT (information and communications technology) exhibitions.

Among the Taiwanese exhibitors was QNAS Systems Inc., a provider of network attached storage (NAS) solutions, which unveiled an array of NAS systems and network video recorders, including its first 4K2K-resolution camera recorder. The QNAS booth this year was 60% larger in size than its booth at the last CeBIT.

The QNAS booth was located in the bloc where a forum focusing on storage solutions for cloud and big data applications was held, the bloc where large suppliers of this kind were concentrated at the showground. The location helped boost the presence of QNAS, which this year aims to greatly expand its market share in Europe. European sales currently contribute 70-80% of the firm's annual revenues.

Last year QNAS sold 400,000-500,000 units of NAS equipment, driven mostly by the rise of the Internet of Things and big data technology, and netted profits of over NT$1.6 billion (about US$53.33 million). Among global brands of NAS equipment priced at below US$5,000 per unit, the Taiwanese supplier now boasts the biggest share of the Asian market.

To further fuel its growth, the company is expanding its NAS production capacity at a factory in New Taipei City, northern Taiwan. When the expansion is completed in 2015, output will reach 1.5 million units annually.

To speed up its own penetration of this segment, the Advantech Co., Taiwan's largest embedded system supplier by size and revenue, demonstrated a variety of smart city solutions for greenhouses, bicycles, online shopping, and others at CeBIT.

After reaching its consolidated revenue goal of US$1 billion last year, Advantech is optimistic about achieving a 15% revenue growth this year, mainly on steadily increasing market demand for solutions for smart cities and the Internet of Things. In the first quarter the firm booked orders worth US$80 million from America alone.

This year's CeBIT drew over 3,500 exhibitors from 70 different countries. The exhibits were divided into a wide range of categories from software, hardware, and system solutions to communications networks, digital business, ECM (enterprise content management) and input/output, ERP (enterprise resource planning) and data analysis, global sourcing, IT infrastructure and data centers, IT services, security, and web and mobile. (SC)