The worldwide production of electronic systems is growing and exceeded the €2,000 Billon for the first time in 2018. Electronic Components and Systems (ECS) includes both professional (e.g. Industrial & Robotics) and consumer electronics (e.g. PCs). Europe accounts for 15% of the production with the Automotive as leading segment. Considering China and North America as largest competitors, the European Commission explored the opportunities ahead.
The report defines ECS into 18 emerging technologies, which were segmented in four main technology fields. The leading segments 10-15 years ago were Consumer PC and Phones, as were Automotive and Industrial electronics segments are leading today. For the coming decade the growth of the world electronic industry is expected to be driven by the professional systems. Most of the current innovation trends can be regrouped under the term “IoT”. Europe remains in a good position regarding the trend of IoT impacting embedded and professional electronic systems. Therefore, the main opportunity for the EU in the next decade can be called “industrial IoT”. This opportunity, however, faces Europe with two great challenges.
First, even though the EU is well positioned in professional electronics, the USA and China are already better positioned in most of the sub-segments. In 2018 Europe accounted for 20-22% of the world embedded and professional electronics production in terms of location of production, whereas the USA and China accounted for 24-26%.
Secondly, the EU is evidently distanced by the USA and China on three specific innovative sub-segments of professional electronics, namely: professional PCs & data analysis; telecommunications infrastructures and; automotive batteries. These segments can be considered as opportunities for European leaders of the professional electronics industry to invest in and to win market shares on foreign players in these fields.