Thalwil, Switzerland–based u-blox consolidated revenues for 2016’s first six months rose to CHF179.7 million Swiss francs (US$182 million), an 11 percent increase over the same period last year. The company’s net profit also increased 9.2 percent, from CHF15 million in 2015 to CHF18 million during the first half of this year.
The majority of revenue came from GNSS positioning chips and wireless modules. At the same time, revenue from wireless services increased 17.8 percent over the year-earlier period.
About 80 percent of u-blox’ revenue came from just 63 of its more than 5,700 total customers, the company said.
The company broke down where revenues, primarily fueled by chipset sales, came from geographically: Asia-Pacific, 46 percent; Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), 25.5 percent; and the Americas, 28.5 percent. u-blox spent CHF32.1 million on research and development expenses during the first half of the year, and, as a result of expanding its presence in several new regions, distribution and marketing expenses rose to 15.9 million Swiss francs.
During the first six months of 2016, the company said it has made progress in marketing its NEO-M8P modules for centimeter-level GNSS positioning. Best-selling products during this time include the u-blox M8 multi-GNSS receivers, which support Galileo as well as GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) and satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS).
Other products that showed strong sales during the period are the NEO-M8U, for automotive markets; NEO-M8P GNSS receivers for unmanned systems; LILY-W1 transceiver; and SARA-U201 for industrial and telematics applications.
