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Kathleen Martin

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Silicon Labs has long been known as a semiconductor supplier for wireless products for applications such as Zigbee. The company, however, has in recent years shifted its focus from areas such as communications infrastructure and automotive to the IoT sector, where it hopes to capture growth areas such as Smart Cities.
During a recent interview with Design News, Mitch Klein, Director of Alliances Strategy, noted that Silicon Labs has shifted its development efforts to focus on industry sectors rather than technologies. The company divested its Infrastructure and Automotive business to Skyworks Solutions for $2.75 billion in July 2021, allowing it to focus its efforts completely on wireless interconnectivity solutions. Klein said it was a shift the company was already well-equipped to handle.
"We already had the capabilities in-house,” Klein said, adding that the company has expertise not only in hardware but in software.  Besides his role in Silicon Labs, Klein is secretary for the Wi-SUN Alliance Board, which is involved in IoT activities such as Smart Cities.
Through his work with the Wi-SUN Alliance, Klein said the company started to get involved several years ago in areas such as water and gas metering, particularly in Japan.
Klein noted that municipal governments he has met with are very enthusiastic about the Smart Cities movement. One such agency is the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees transportation facilities in the New York City metropolitan area. Klein is trying to get that agency to use Smart Cities initiatives to upgrade infrastructure, even escalators.
Continue reading: https://www.designnews.com/iot/silicon-labs-hedges-future-iot
 

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