We are an engineering company says Henri Seydoux

It is a tradition as strong as the eve of the Saint-Sylvestre. The first week of January sees the world of consumer electronics to meet in Las Vegas. As in the parade, the roles are already assigned: the Japanese and the Koreans will compete with their new TVs, the Taiwanese will decline their computer products and Chinese insinuate everywhere with their unbeatable prices.

Well before the rest of the world, leisure electronics tipped for more than three decades, across the Pacific. For the pessimists is the metaphor of the world that awaits us. Since the defeat of RCA and Zenith in the 1970s in the United States and those of Thomson and Philips in Europe, no Westerner can now compete with the Giants Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, and now Haier. Person, really But of the hood of the father Christmas were again this year to objects strange branded the California Apple or the bostonien Bose. And even, sometimes, some lucky were able to receive the four propellers bird funny signed French Parrot.

In the wake of Apple, these shy desert flowers are exploring the new world of the digital revolution with new rules. It is even harder for European shoot, which do not benefit from the same soil. Consider the case of the French Parrot, European leader of wireless systems in cars. He wants to now merge video games and radio with the drone, but also invest the image and sound with photo frames and musical forums wireless. With planned turnover EUR 200 million this year, it is a rare case in France. As most of its congeners, its strategy is based on the triptych technology, logistics and marketing. This is the new credo of young wolves in digital for all.

Product features of Parrot, the AR Drone, is an electric aircraft is remote with his iPhone. He embarks two cameras, two gyroscopes and two accelerometers. The integrated circuit and the chip are home, and the software. Its development required five years of work and resulted in the filing of a patent 20. It is technological as Henri Seydoux, the founder of Parrot loves them. For him, the technology is the nuclear reactor of its society. A third 500 employees of the company, all gathered at the Paris headquarters on the edge of the canal Saint-Martin are engineers. Research and development absorbs 35 of the workforce. Despite the crisis, which has lost a quarter of sales of the company between 2007 and 2009, the research budget has been increased to approaching 15 of turnover.

And not question to disperse. Specialist in acoustics and signal processing, the firm threw all its forces from 1998 in a technology, the standard Bluetooth, developed by Swedish Ericsson. It allows to communicate wirelessly several devices on a few metres by consuming very little energy and is therefore very suitable for the mobile phone.

The firm will use this skill to design car systems compatible with all brands of phone. The vision of Henri Seydoux is good because Bluetooth has become a standard, integrated in almost 1.3 billion objects in the world, including 800 million mobile phones. It was not until 2005 that it will extend jurisdiction over other technologies such as Wi - Fi wireless. A sharp but jurisdiction spread over the chain of the product, the drawing of the chip, to piloting software. And a broad vision of a world wireless reorganized around the mobile.

If the firm has integrated its research, it has however no industrial argument. "We are an engineering company," says Henri Seydoux. Result, such as Apple, Logitech, Bose or Acer, it has implemented a team specialized in the sourcing of components, the selection of subcontractors, the monitoring of the quality and supply chain. A team of 60 people from Hong Kong led monitors the manufacture in Chinese sub-contractors in Shenzhen factories. It runs five days between the order by a store or an auto installer and delivery. But the manufacturing cycle, from the order of the components to delivery exceeds four months, with stocks at all stages.

Marketed Germany, the aeromodelling phare countries on August 18, the Parrot drone was exhausted in stores within two hours. A considerable buzz on the Internet had preceded him, and a live presentation in the lounges of Las Vegas (electronics) and then Los Angeles (video games). If the drone was three months after its launch almost 10 of sales for the quarter, the multimedia division is still modest. It includes for the moment only a pair of speakers with wireless (for iPhone and iPod) designed by designer Philippe Starck (designer for TV Thomson in the years 1990) and frames to digital photos with wireless, them also designed by renowned stylists.

Refocused on objects very technological and high-quality, but very visible media, this activity is the reputation and the image of the company. She is also a field for experimentation and demonstration of his expertise.

For the rest, that is still more than 80 of the turnover, the future depends on the development of mobile telephony in cars. To mitigate the risks while taking advantage of this market, which should, according to experts, more than double by 2015, the company used three types of clients: individuals, with hands-free kits very simple; installers and dealers; and, finally, car manufacturers, by manufacturers of audio equipment. This last area, said of the OEM provides large volumes and long term contracts (usually four years).

The Parrot ambition is to become the essential provider of wireless platforms in the car, the image of Intel in the PC. It is this specialization its strength, with market share reaching in Europe up to 80. Despite the presentation in Las Vegas to a car stereo totally connected to the Internet (and mobile), it does not intend to compete with the Pioneer, Alpine and other tenors of the audio. Its ambition is, still in exploration new territories around mobile telephony, where, now, much of the future of consumer electronics.