Tony Tsao maps out ambitious goals for D-Link.(D-Link Corp.)

Tony Tsao, CEO and president of the D-Link Corp., the world's No. 1 brand-name supplier of network connectivity solutions for the end market, promises to almost double the company's revenue to US$2 billion in 2013 (up from US$1.06 billion in 2010) and to make his brand as famous as Apple's.

To achieve those goals, Tsao hopes to harness the emerging trend of Internet, fixed-line network, telecasting network, and mobile network convergence to create applications including online music, game, and e-mail downloads on devices like smartphones and set-top boxes. This trend will make digitized multimedia available everywhere. "In the past," Tsao explains, "technological revolutions in the network-connectivity industry were usually driven each time by one single development, with wireless technology coming first and then broadband. In the coming 10 years there will be multiple driving forces at the same time. The new wave of technological revolution in the industry is just beginning."

HTC, Tsao notes, fueled the demand for mobile broadband last year, after Apple introduced its iPhone, by introducing more powerful smartphones. "This year," the CEO continues, "tablet PCs and other intelligent end products will join smartphones in facilitating the development of the mobile-broadband industry by fostering investments by service providers in broadband infrastructure such as optic-fiber networks."

Telecoms carriers around the world, including Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom, plan to boost capital spending this year. Tsao notes, "Chunghwa, for instance, will spend a quarter more capital this year than last on broadband infrastructure, presenting lucrative business opportunities for providers of network-connectivity solutions."

Tsao believes that Internet-based applications will trigger the explosive development of network convergence, with online gaming leading the way followed by online medicine and education. "To keep up with this transition," he comments, "D-Link is building application software into its equipment and diversifying retail channels. This change reminds me of the D-Link2.0 project of Ken Kao, D-Link's late founder, which aimed to combine our hardware with application software to connect with cloud computing and the Internet."

When bundled with multi-application software, Tsao estimates, devices can sell for US$1,000 to US$2,000 each--10 times the prices of pure devices alone. "The migration to application-enabled equipment," he says, "has made D-Link unmatched in the industry, and this inspires us to pursue the goal of making our brand name as well known as Apple within 25 years of operation."

A convenient means to this end is making D-Link products available in Apple's contracted stores. "We're convincing the contracted stores to sell our products along with iPads and iPhones," Tsao reports. Products carrying the D-Link brand can now be purchased in 80 countries.

Citing HTC's success in promoting its own-brand smartphones, Tsao emphasizes that brand names will be crucial to the development of Taiwan's high-tech industries as they build supply chains around brand-name operations. "Taiwan's government may work out a policy to promote this by borrowing from the successful experiences of other countries, and helping Taiwan's high-tech industries with brand-name development," Tsao suggests.

The company is adding optic-fiber infrastructure equipment, DOCSIS3.0 (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specifications 3.0) end-user equipment for cable TV, IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) equipment, business switchers, and home hubs for mobile broadband to its traditional network-application and multimedia equipment this year. "With the business opportunities for these new products becoming mature," Tsao assets, "we're confident that our sales will double to US$2 billion in 2013."

Last year D-Link's after-tax earnings amounted to NT$1.22 billion (US$40.7 million), yielding NT$1.89 per shareiXa year-on-year increase of 138.7%. Revenues in 2010 were up 9.2%, to NT$33.8 billion (US$1.1 billion).

In 2010, 57% of the company's exports went to emerging and Asia-Pacific markets, North America took a quarter (up 7.1 percentage points), and Europe took 18% (down 7.4 points). Shipments of switches rose 22.6% last year, digital home equipment climbed 6.8%, and broadband equipment rose 5.1%.

Tsao thinks that the mainland's 12th Five-year Development Plan and the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) that Taiwan and China signed last year will help boost D-Link's growth in the years to come. "ECFA inspires mainland China's government and enterprises to purchase electronics products from Taiwan," he explains, "and the new Five-Year Plan will inspire more investment in broadband and mobile network infrastructure on the mainland. Both of these developments present huge business opportunities for D-Link."