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For a country that earns the vast majority of its wealth from commodities and natural resources, there is a surprising amount of innovation taking place in Australia and there is a distinctively Australian character to this innovation.
As a global supplier of semiconductor technologies, what I would call the “source technology” for all product innovations in electronics, STMicroelectronics can easily categorize the specific types of silicon technologies that sell well in each market, including Australia.
The population size of Australia certainly does not promote market-driven innovation, the way it would in the US and increasingly in the likes of China and India. As a comparison, the semiconductor market for China is USD 80 billion compared to USD 0.9 billion in ANZ*. Based on conventional wisdom, Australia’s relatively small market size and distance from the major markets should challenge any business venture dependent on innovation. So what is making innovation tick in Australia, with all of its 23 million people and too many hours away by jet from everywhere else?
I believe conditions and circumstances together help shape the Australian character of innovation. Its relative small size and isolation actually creates a free-spirited pioneering environment reminiscent of the early years of California’s Silicon Valley. The “have-fun-with-technology” attitude is still alive in Australia with companies and organizations more willing to “try-stuff-out.” Couple this with Australian society’s youth and its diversity (1 in 4 residents of Australia were born elsewhere), produces a hunger to succeed that is exceptionally strong and certainly provides a vitality boost to innovation.
Australia is not categorized as a major semiconductor market by most vendors, including STMicroelectronics, but its receptiveness towards our newest and most cutting-edge technologies is world-class. Simply put, the Australian market may be small but it is often an early adopter of our technologies in new and innovative applications.
Take the example of Parramatta, the second largest city in New South Wales outside of Sydney, which recently adopted our latest Near Field Communication (NFC) technology as part of the city-wide ParraSync mobile concierge project. NFC technology holds great promise for societal benefits while presenting complex collaborative requirements in full-scale, real-life, multi-use implementations. Though challenged by the usual roadblocks this complicated project was, I believe, made possible by this uniquely Australian environment. The progressive “let’s-try-it” attitude, inherent in the Australian mindset, united all the partners. This spirit enhanced the typical desire for a better quality of life, to encourage early adoption of this innovation.
Another good example of Australian innovation is the Automated Contactless Check-In System implemented by Qantas, the world’s first such system. The airline embraced RFID technologies to create the only automated airline check-in system that is entirely “touch and go,” combining all the functions of e-ticket, loyalty programs and baggage check-in, all within a single smart card.
At the risk of sounding elitist, I would say that Australian innovation is well suited to the premium market. I mean it is not ideal for a commoditized item like a netbook that would sell in the tens of millions of units, but is better suited for higher end products.
This is not to say that no one would buy a low-cost netbook in Australia. They do. But it just does not make sense to develop one specifically for the local market when you can simply import one that was developed elsewhere.
The premium characteristic of Australian innovation is reflected in the way ST markets its products here. In all Asian markets outside of Japan and Korea, ST’s bestselling microcontrollers (MCUs) are its competitively priced mass-market controllers. In Australia, there is greater interest in our top-of-the-line STM 32 F4, the most powerful MCU in the market. The rich features and creative value-add of these premium solutions are more relevant to our Australian customers, rather than the price-performance advantage of the mass-market solutions.
The Australian market is proving to be an excellent reference showcase of new technology applications for our products. MEMS-based tracking tags by our partner, Bluechiip, are one such example. Bluechiip has adapted STMicroelectronics’ bio-sensor and actuator technologies to create a ground-breaking tracking solution for use in biobanks which could be adapted for use in security, industrial, manufacturing, waste, aerospace and aviation.
The emphasis on product-level creativity and experiential enhancement has transformed the way ST talks to its customers in Australia. We talk functionality more than features, emphasize product differentiation more than chipset performance, and user experience rather than product specifications.
The Australian market is distinctively innovative in character, as well as spirit. Once you get past the skeptical questions of cost, market size and relative distance, the obvious constant driving innovation in Australia is “quality of life.” For STMicroelectronics, Australia’s technology sector is an innovation soul mate, since our brand promise of life.augmented recognizes that technology is meant to improve the quality of life.
* Source – World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) 2011.