Q: Last year, we asked what impact the worldwide economic crisis had on the markets you serve and on how you run your business under these conditions. One year later, what is your perspective? Are things getting better? If you sell into the aerospace and defense market, what are your projections for the coming year?

A: While there was some improvement in the worldwide economic situation throughout 2010, many sectors continued to experience little or no growth and the overall jobless rate remains high.

For Skyworks specifically, demand for our solutions increased significantly in 2010 and continues to be driven by several larger macro trends including consumers insatiable demand for always on connectivity, the growth of embedded devices and the rapid proliferation of RF content into new and diverse markets such as smart energy, infrastructure, broadband, industrial and medical, to name just a few. With wireless becoming the universal connector and mobile devices becoming a “must have” versus a “nice to have”, we and others are in the enviable position of having a product in high demand.

As a result, we enter 2011 with high expectations for continued growth and a commitment to continue delivering innovative solutions that help meet our customers’ needs.

Q: Do you participate in social networking sites such as Facebook and/or Twitter? If not, why not? If yes, what benefit do you feel comes from being on one or both of those sites?

A: You can find Skyworks on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. With Facebook and Twitter, we are able to share our news directly with interested customers, partners and investors who have subscribed to our posts. LinkedIn helps Skyworks with recruiting.

As the provider of semiconductor content for mobile Internet devices, we believe that in some small way Skyworks is helping enable these social networks.

Q: There remains a serious shortage of RF engineers out there – what’s the solution? Is your company involved in programs that might promote or encourage talented engineering students to pursue a career in the microwave industry?

A: Skyworks’ University Relations program develops and maintains relationships with colleges and universities across the United States. We also participate in on-campus recruitment events including information sessions and career fairs, hire student interns, and recruit new graduates to fill entry-level positions for all business unit and support functions. In addition, Skyworks’ charitable contributions are often directed towards education and engineering outreach, such as local science fairs.

Our belief is that these collective efforts help motivate today’s students into becoming tomorrow’s contributors, drivers and inventors of next-generation technologies.

Q: Now that the Far East is growing its own RF and microwave component and subsystem manufacturing, have you seen any “inbound” competition?

A: Competition will always exist, regardless of the region. At Skyworks, we therefore continue to focus our efforts on those things within our control: developing innovative products, listening to our customers and executing operationally. We are a metrics driven culture and strive to achieve perfect quality. For example, we recently expanded our presence in Asia by opening an office in Singapore to support increasing demand for solutions within our linear products portfolio and to further enhance our manufacturing activities in the region. This is all part of our continuous effort to improve customer service and bring innovative products closer to the customer.

Q: If you could list three markets or technologies that will drive the industry in the next two years, what would they be?

A: The handset market is seeing increasing consumer demand for sophisticated mobile devices, or smart phones, with faster data rates, improved video, and an excellent Web connection. Smart energy continues to be another exciting growth opportunity as utilities, businesses and consumers are demanding enhanced billing efficiency, usage monitoring and increasingly, power control to prevent costly brown-outs and potentially catastrophic black-outs. Some third party research firms expect more than 150 million smart meters to be installed worldwide in the next five years creating an incremental semiconductor opportunity of $2 billion by 2012. Wireless and wireline infrastructure, medical and automotive are also seeing increased worldwide demand for ubiquitous wireless connectivity.

www.skyworksinc.com