Thank you 2023!

It is quite straightforward to dedicate the last two blogs of the year to summarize the 12 months which have just been passing. So today a short reflection on the business (Silvair) side and next week on my personal front. Both have been challenging, required a lot of commitment but ultimately delivered great rewards.

Those who follow our quarterly reports can see how 2023 has been shaping up to be a yet another year during which our key business indicators have doubled. While it does not sound like landing a man on the moon, I really like the consistency and the fundamentals. Also I've been hearing recently the "business" environment in commercial lighting has not been that great (some major companies are reorganizing and laying off staff). So it is even more reassuring to continue our solid growth.

And it is not just the numbers. Bluetooth SIG relaunched the Mesh focusing (via Bluetooth NLC) on the Networked Lighting Controls segment. That resonated really well. And even more - as I was explaining to one of our customers recently - the roadmap we have is probably for the next 10 years: Distance Measurement, Higher Data Throughput and Higher Frequency Bands (https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/specifications-in-development/)  require plenty of work. But over my 10-year past with Bluetooth, I have never seen a roadmap which is so far-reaching and so exciting. Performance - wise, Bluetooth NLC is already way ahead of any other low power mesh technology. With the new developments we have the potential to achieve an order of magnitude jumps in both performance (8 Mbps) and scalability (~10x the number of radio channels).

On the product front, the 2023 landmark was definitely the release of our Android App, which under the hood is really two apps - Android and iOS based on the single source. I believe this approach while initially harder, will give us a long term advantage in the speed and consistency of development for both platforms. The runner-up has clearly been the emergency lighting testing, which supports DALI part 202 (over Bluetooth mesh) and has huge potential based on the feedback from our customers. And last but not least we did it again, being the first to achieve Bluetooth SIG qualification for the new NLC specifications.

I'm really proud of our team and thankful to all our customers for the commitment and trust. Looking forward to even stronger 2024!