Electronics Manufacturers Gear Up for New Business Opportunities with Extra Investment on Embedded Software

The following is issued on behalf of the America Hong Kong Electronics Association (now known as the Hong Kong Electronics & Technologies Association):

(HONG KONG: April 14, 2008) More Hong Kong electronics manufacturers are investing more on embedded software to boost products development and design, according to the "Hong Kong Embedded Software Survey 2007".

The Survey was initiated by the America Hong Kong Electronics Association (AHKEA) [now known as the Hong Kong Electronics & Technologies Association (HKETA)] and conducted by the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC). It is part of a programme funded by the SME Development Fund of the Trade and Industry Department of the HKSAR Government to raise the overall competitiveness of electronics industry.

The Survey focused on the application of embedded software in the electronics industry including its current and future deployment as well as the support required and received for its further development. A total of 120 electronics manufacturers and embedded software developers were interviewed between September and November 2007.

According to the Survey, 40.8% of the manufacturers raised their budgets for embedded software purchase for 2007, with the biggest budget increase exceeding 25%.

Presenting the survey findings at a press conference today, Mr Victor Ng, project leader and Vice Chairman of AHKEA, said: "The electronics manufacturers surveyed are quite optimistic on their outlook of the consumer market in the near future. This is good news to local embedded software developers as 73.3% of the manufacturers outsourced the programming of embedded software. With larger budgets, more businesses for the embedded software developers are expected."

The manufacturers also identified inadequate channel to approach potential embedded software developers, lack of information about Hong Kong developers and insufficient technical expertise to judge the embedded software quality/developers' qualification as the three major difficulties in outsourcing embedded software programming locally.

"In view of these difficulties, AHKEA will organize workshops in June 2008 to enhance practitioners' related knowledge. We have also prepared the 'Hong Kong Embedded Software Developer Directory 2008' which will be distributed free of charge in electronics industry and international exhibitions," Mr Ng said.

The Survey also found that price and software reliability/quality were the two most important factors for the manufacturers when sourcing embedded software.

In addition, most of the manufacturers and embedded software developers surveyed expect more help from the government such as the creation of an embedded software design fund and support from Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks' resources.

Dr Samson Tam, Deputy Chairman of HKPC, who was also present at today's press conference, said: "As embedded software is increasingly important to the IT industry and is also widely used in electronics　products, many business opportunities are presented to companies in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province."

"To tap these opportunities, we need to provide more training to industry practitioners and keep track of the latest development in embedded software technologies. In addition, collaboration between the R&D sector, academics and the industry will create synergy to promote the application of embedded software in the local IT industry."

Details of the "Hong Kong Embedded Software Survey 2007" can be downloaded from the websites of AHKTEA (www.ahkea.org), HKETA (www.hketa.net) and the Software Industry Information Centre of HKPC (www.siic.org.hk). For further information, please contact HKPC's Mr Derek Poon at tel. (852) 2788 5690 or email: derekpoon@hkpc.org.