Earthtimes seems like a strange place to find a report from CCID (I had a problem with CCID Consulting’s website, so I’m not including a link - I’m not sure what’s going on), nonetheless, that’s where I saw the release.  The embedded portion of the electronics value chain has exploded over the past decade.  I think that there are two primary explanations for this.  First, it’s partly the result of the availability of powerful standard building blocks.  Second, semiconductor companies are able to crank out performance/functionality fast.  In fact, faster than most organizations can deploy systems that take full advantage of the available power.  Increasingly, the value add comes, not at the silicon level, but at the embedded systems level.

Here’s what CCID had to say:

“In 2007, the market scale reached 408.16 billion US dollars, up 17.50% over 2006. The scale of China’s embedded system market also reached 221.81 billion Yuan in 2007, up 32.3% over 2006.”

Among the Chinese outsourcing companies, Long Circle is the only one that I’m familiar with (also here) that specializes in this area - good for them! I’m guessing that we’ll see other organizations following their lead.

The release ends with some sound advice to Chinese companies and a veiled warning to electronics firms in the rest of the world:

‘Strengthening R&D in embedded system would be the best strategy in the transition for China products from “Made in China” to “Created in China”.’

Technorati Tags:  China, China Outsourcing