Paul D. Arling, Chairman and CEO of Universal Electronics (UEIC), Interviews with The Wall Street Transcript

Wall Street Transcript



Companies include: Universal Electronics Inc. (UEIC) and many more.

In the following excerpt from the Electronic Components Report, the Chairman and CEO of Universal Electronics (UEIC) discusses company strategy and the outlook for this vital industry:

TWST: Speaking of mobile, I know you are looking at launching some embedded app technologies with mobile, IPTV and games console companies. What does that exactly mean and why is that important to you?

Mr. Arling: I'll start with the game console market. Their aim is to be more than just a game console. In the past, people would use the game console as another "mode," as we call it, on their television. They would switch the mode to gaming, put a disc in, and then play their game. Now manufacturers understand game devices are smart, connected devices that can bring multiple entertainment options to the user through their interface.

One use is of course gaming; it has always been. Another would be over-the-top services, video services that are popular to be streamed over the Internet and brought to your 60-inch TV in your family room. And the third is as an interface on top of your linear TV or your live TV. In others words, you can take your cable feed, plug it into your game console, and it can provide an interface through which you could view all of your entertainment options.

Now in order to successfully do that, one of the ingredients - game device manufacturers - clearly need is the ability to control the other devices connected to the game device. The simplest example is when I turn on my gaming device; I also want to turn on my television. Well I'm going to need control technology to do that. If I want to also incorporate the live TV portion, I need to control the set-top box that I plugged into my game console. So I need control technology, and that is where UEI comes into play. We can provide game device manufacturers the control technology to embed into the device to enable control of the other devices in the home entertainment stack. That's game consoles.

Now, the mobile market is a totally different matter. Mobile device makers are competing with...


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