Giants enter the market, accelerating the development process of intelligent hardware

After experiencing rapid growth in 2015, smart hardware products will continue to rise in 2016, and the market size will also exceed 50 billion yuan from 42.4 billion yuan in 2015. The continuous popularity of smart products such as VR, smart wearables, drones, balance bikes, smart cars, and smart homes has also attracted the three giants of BAT to increase their investment in smart hardware products and accelerate the development process of smart hardware. Renowned market research firm Juniper Research predicts that the global market size for smart hardware is expected to reach $30 billion to $50 billion in 2017.

The Most Promising Career: Intelligent Hardware Engineer Becomes a New Favorite

In such a favorable industry context, intelligent hardware engineers are receiving increasing attention. At the beginning of this year, Xinhua News Agency predicted that with the development of smart hardware, smart hardware engineers would become the hottest and most lucrative profession in the market. According to statistics, the average salary of intelligent hardware engineers has exceeded 13400 yuan, catching up with the top ranked financial industry in terms of average salary.

Intelligent hardware engineers are different from engineers in the computer industry. It not only needs to master the latest technological trends, be familiar with mainstream protocols and standards, but also needs to have the ability to use software/instruments, circuit design capabilities, and handle relationships with semiconductor distributors and FAEs to strive for greater technical support and assistance; Deal well with external laboratories to obtain more flexible testing time and more feedback on improvements. It is precisely this diverse nature of work that makes hardware engineers have a huge demand for component information, data information, overall solutions, technical support, and expert opinions.

The continuous heating up of the intelligent hardware industry has spurred the transformation and upgrading of the component distribution industry

The continuously heating smart hardware market and huge customer demand have prompted the semiconductor industry, which has long relied on offline sales and service provision, to actively seek change. Component distributors represented by KeTong Xincheng and Zhongdian Port have added e-commerce platforms to their existing business, expanded their business scope, and formed an online product supply chain. And well-known distributor Shiqiang has developed the first intelligent hardware innovation service platform, "Shiqiang Component E-commerce," based on the practical needs of hardware engineers in the process of product innovation for "knowledge," "selection," "research," and "use" of components. It is understood that the Shiqiang Component E-commerce platform is not just a trading platform, but a service platform that connects the entire intelligent hardware innovation service chain. On this platform, engineers can obtain a one-stop service from new component and technology information, innovative solutions, all necessary materials for research and development, to senior expert technical support, expert experience sharing, and comprehensive component supply. However, in the name of e-commerce and in the name of service, is it disruptive? Or a counterattack? Will it ultimately gain the favor of engineers? It is highly anticipated how the "Shiqiang Component E-commerce" will develop in the future.