Infineon Technologies AG bought a stake in U.K. audio specialist Xmos Ltd.
as the German chipmaker seeks to gain from rapidly growing demand for
voice-controlled devices like Amazon.com Inc.’s Echo assistant and the
Google Home speaker.
Infineon led a $15 million funding round in
Bristol-based Xmos, which develops sophisticated voice processors and
algorithms. Infineon wants to pair those with its own microphones and gesture-tracking
products to improve the interaction with smart home gadgets by, for
instance, better filtering out background noise. The technology is aimed
at potential customers such as Amazon, Apple Inc. and Samsung
Electronics Co., said Andreas Urschitz, who heads Infineon’s power
management and multimarket division.
The market for
voice-controlled devices “is a strategic growth area for Infineon,”
Urschitz said in a phone interview. “We can jointly bring the user
experience for voice control to an entirely new level.”
The market is promising. Shipments of intelligent home
speakers surged almost seven-fold year-over-year to 4.2 million units in
the fourth quarter, according to consultant Strategy Analytics.
Spending on smart-home related hardware, services and installation fees
will reach $155 billion by 2022, up from almost $90 billion this year,
with devices accounting for about half of that, the consulting firm
estimates.
And it’s not just the Amazon Echo, Google Home, or
Apple’s yet-to-be released HomePod that will drive demand for these
chips. Infineon and Xmos expect voice control to increasingly replace
touch technology in household devices such as TVs, thermostats and robot
vacuums, partly because the user experience will improve and chips get
smaller and cheaper.
Chips are even set to make their way into
furniture -- think voice-controlled beds, Xmos Chief Executive Officer
Mark Lippett said. To be successful, the chips need to be "the most
economical,” he said.
Infineon already sells or is working on
sensors that let devices to listen, see, smell, and feel temperature or
pressure, and it expects the partnership with Xmos to speed up the
development of its chip designs, Urschitz said. Infineon didn’t disclose
the size of its Xmos stake, calling it a strategic minority investment.
“We
want to jointly advance communication between a person and a machine to
a point where it resembles more and more like two people interacting,”
Urschitz said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-07/infineon-eyes-amazon-apple-voice-control-market-with-xmos-stake
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