Impinj Inc (PI) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Welcome to the Impinj Third Quarter 2023 Financial Results Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this event is being recorded.

歡迎參加 Impinj 2023 年第三季財務業績電話會議和網路廣播。 （操作員說明）請注意，正在記錄此事件。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Andy Cobb, Vice President, Strategic Finance. Please go ahead.

現在我想將會議交給策略財務副總裁安迪‧科布先生。請繼續。

Thank you, MJ. Good afternoon, and thank you all for joining us to discuss Impinj's Third Quarter 2023 Results. On today's call, Chris Diorio, Impinj's Co-Founder and CEO, will provide a brief overview of our market opportunity and performance. Cary Baker, Impinj's CFO, will follow with a detailed review of our third quarter 2023 financial results and fourth quarter outlook. We will then open the call for questions. Jeff Dossett, Impinj's CRO, will join us for the Q&A. You can find management's prepared remarks plus trended financial data on the company's Investor Relations website.

謝謝你，喬丹。下午好，感謝大家加入我們討論 Impinj 2023 年第三季業績。在今天的電話會議上，Impinj 聯合創始人兼執行長 Chris Diorio 將簡要概述我們的市場機會和業績。 Impinj 財務長 Cary Baker 將詳細審查我們 2023 年第三季的財務表現和第四季的前景。然後我們將開始提問。 Impinj 的 CRO Jeff Dossett 將參加我們的問答。您可以在公司的投資者關係網站上找到管理層準備好的評論以及趨勢財務數據。

We will make statements in this call about financial performance and future expectations that are based on our outlook as of today. Any such statements are forward-looking under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While we believe we have a reasonable basis for making these forward-looking statements, our actual results could differ materially because any such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. We describe these risks and uncertainties in the annual and quarterly reports we file with the SEC. We do not undertake and expressly disclaim any obligation to update or alter our forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

我們將在本次電話會議中根據我們今天的展望發表有關財務業績和未來預期的聲明。根據1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》，任何此類聲明均具有前瞻性。雖然我們相信我們有合理的基礎來做出這些前瞻性聲明，但我們的實際結果可能會存在重大差異，因為任何此類別聲明都存在風險和不確定性。我們在向 SEC 提交的年度和季度報告中描述了這些風險和不確定性。除非法律要求，否則我們不承擔並明確否認任何更新或更改我們的前瞻性聲明的義務。

On today's call, all financial metrics, except for revenue or where we explicitly state otherwise, are non-GAAP. Balance sheet and cash flow metrics are GAAP. Please refer to our earnings release for a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial metrics to the most comparable GAAP metrics.

在今天的電話會議上，除收入或我們明確說明的其他財務指標外，所有財務指標均為非公認會計準則。資產負債表和現金流量指標採用公認會計準則。請參閱我們的收益發布，以了解非公認會計原則財務指標與最具可比性的公認會計原則指標的調節表。

Before turning to our results and outlook, note that we will participate in Baird's Global Industrial Conference on November 9 in Chicago. We look forward to connecting with many of you there. I will now turn the call over to Chris.

在討論我們的業績和展望之前，請注意，我們將參加 11 月 9 日在芝加哥舉行的貝爾德全球工業會議。我們期待與你們中的許多人建立聯繫。我現在將把電話轉給克里斯。

Thank you, Andy, and thank you all for joining the call. As I reflect on our results, while I'm disappointed that 2023 has been far more challenging than we anticipated entering the year, I am pleased with our execution this quarter. We beat our revenue guide midpoint and exceeded our profitability guide.

謝謝你，安迪，也謝謝大家加入這通通話。當我反思我們的業績時，雖然我對 2023 年的挑戰遠比我們預期的更具挑戰性感到失望，但我對本季的執行情況感到滿意。我們超過了收入指南的中位數，並超越了獲利指南。

Looking forward, we see green shoots in the fourth quarter. Expect our full year 2023 endpoint IC volumes to be consistent with our industry's historical 29% unit volume CAGR, anticipated market rebound in 2024 and remain a growth leader despite the difficult macro.

展望未來，我們看到第四季出現了新芽。預計我們 2023 年全年端點 IC 銷售將與產業史上 29% 的複合年增長率一致，預計 2024 年市場將出現反彈，並在宏觀經濟困難的情況下仍保持成長領先地位。

We also continue improving our demand forecasting and inventory management. To quote Winston Churchill, "We are not letting a good crisis go to waste." Challenging periods have always made us a stronger company, and I have no doubt this one will as well.

我們也持續改進需求預測和庫存管理。引用溫斯頓邱吉爾的話：“我們不會讓一場好的危機白白浪費。”充滿挑戰的時期總是讓我們成為一家更強大的公司，我毫不懷疑這家公司也會如此。

Focusing first on endpoint ICs. Third quarter revenue slightly exceeded our expectations but declined sequentially. Weakness in the overall retail apparel market and softness in the general merchandise ramp at the large North American retailer eclipsed strong unit volume growth at our second large North American supply chain and logistics customer. And while IC inventory at many of our inlay partners declined, the aggregate decline was less than we had anticipated.

首先關注端點 IC。第三季營收略高於我們的預期，但季減。整體零售服飾市場的疲軟以及北美大型零售商日用百貨銷售的疲軟掩蓋了我們第二大北美供應鏈和物流客戶的強勁單位銷售成長。儘管我們許多鑲嵌合作夥伴的 IC 庫存有所下降，但整體下降幅度小於我們的預期。

Looking to the fourth quarter, green shoots and retail apparel are driving improving demand at our inlay partners. While it is too early to call a bottom, it appears that at least in North America, the worst of the retail inventory destocking is behind us. That said, we expect our inlay partners to continue reducing their IC inventory in the fourth quarter even as they deliver into that improving retail demand. Looking into 2024, we see secular growth in both parcel tracking and retail, the letter buoyed by self-checkout driving 100% tagging and a general merchandise expansion.

展望第四季度，新芽和零售服裝正在推動我們鑲嵌合作夥伴的需求不斷增長。雖然現在斷言觸底還為時過早，但至少在北美，零售庫存去庫存最糟糕的時期似乎已經過去。也就是說，我們預計我們的鑲嵌合作夥伴將在第四季度繼續減少 IC 庫存，即使他們滿足了零售需求的改善。展望 2024 年，我們看到包裹追蹤和零售業的長期成長，這得益於自助結帳推動 100% 標籤和一般商品擴張。

Turning to systems. Third quarter reader and gateway revenue was slightly below our expectations due primarily to macro headwinds, slowing partner-led deployments. Our enterprise engagements continue to be a bright spot, led by expanding parcel tracking at the second supply chain and logistics end user, self-checkout on loss prevention at the visionary European retailer, and has successfully concluded self-checkout deployments at the Asia-based global retailer.

轉向系統。第三季讀卡機和網關收入略低於我們的預期，主要是由於宏觀不利因素，合作夥伴主導的部署放緩。我們的企業合作仍然是一個亮點，包括擴大第二供應鏈和物流最終用戶的包裹追蹤、在有遠見的歐洲零售商的防損自助結帳，以及在亞洲的零售商成功完成自助結帳部署。全球零售商。

Looking to the fourth quarter, we expect a sequential decline in reader and gateway revenue due to continued weakness in our partner-led reader deployments and unfavorable delivery timing to our enterprise end users. Looking further out, we will continue investing in solutions that leverage our entire platform, working hand-in-hand with lighthouse enterprises to solve their previously unsolvable business problems.

展望第四季度，由於我們合作夥伴主導的讀卡機部署持續疲軟以及向企業最終用戶不利的交付時間，我們預計讀卡機和網關收入將連續下降。展望未來，我們將繼續投資於利用我們整個平台的解決方案，與燈塔企業攜手合作，解決他們以前無法解決的業務問題。

Those efforts paid dividends in 2023, both into systems and recurring endpoints IC volumes, and we expect that trend to continue in 2024. I remain confident that our focus on enterprise solutions will yield further dividends in the years ahead. Third quarter reader IC revenue declined as we expected, due primarily to weak macro demand in China and our partners continuing their transition from our older Indy product line to our new Impinj E family.

這些努力在2023 年帶來了紅利，無論是系統還是經常性端點IC 數量，我們預計這一趨勢將在2024 年持續下去。我仍然相信，我們對企業解決方案的關注將在未來幾年產生更多紅利。第三季讀卡機 IC 收入如我們預期下降，主要是由於中國宏觀需求疲軟以及我們的合作夥伴繼續從我們舊的 Indy 產品線過渡到我們新的 Impinj E 系列。

Looking to the fourth quarter, we see similar reader IC revenue to third quarter with China demand remaining soft and our partners focused on selling down their Indy-based product inventory before fully ramping sales of E family-based designs. That said, we're pleased with the pace of our E family design wins and our traction with emerging opportunities.

展望第四季度，我們看到讀卡機 IC 收入與第三季度相似，中國需求依然疲軟，我們的合作夥伴專注於銷售基於 Indy 的產品庫存，然後再全面提高基於 E 系列設計的銷售。也就是說，我們對 E 系列設計獲勝的速度以及對新興機會的吸引力感到滿意。

Turning to our intellectual property dispute with NXP, we prevailed in Washington, California and China. The California Court issued post-trial rulings instructing the parties to agree on a monetary award to Impinj of holding the jury verdict in our favor on 1 patent, but denying our request for an injunction and ordering a retrial on a second patent's validity while upholding its infringement and willfulness verdict in our favor. We appealed the injunction denial, requested an ongoing royalty and are pursuing further damages from NXP's Dutch affiliate. The first of 3 Texas trials involving 3 Impinj patents versus 2 patents NXP recently licensed from a third party starts next week.

至於我們與恩智浦的智慧財產權糾紛，我們在華盛頓、加州和中國獲勝。加州法院發布了審後裁決，指示雙方同意向Impinj 支付金錢賠償，以維持陪審團對一項專利有利的裁決，但拒絕我們的禁令請求，並下令對第二項專利的有效性進行重審，同時維持其原判。侵權和故意判決對我們有利。我們對禁令被駁回提出上訴，要求持續支付特許權使用費，並正在向恩智浦荷蘭子公司追索進一步的損失賠償。德州的第 3 項試驗將於下週開始，其中涉及 3 項 Impinj 專利與恩智浦最近從第三方獲得許可的 2 項專利。

Overall, we remain confident in our position and anticipate seeing the litigation through to a successful outcome. In closing, despite the macro headwinds impacting our fourth quarter outlook, we see signs of retail demand improvement, expect strong annual endpoint IC unit volume growth and remain optimistic for the future.

整體而言，我們對自己的立場仍然充滿信心，並期望訴訟能取得成功。最後，儘管宏觀阻力影響了我們第四季的前景，但我們看到零售需求改善的跡象，預計年度端點 IC 銷售將強勁成長，並對未來保持樂觀。

As I said earlier, we as a company have been through industry cycles before and have come through each of them stronger. With excitement for the future, our leading market position and the strength of our platform and strategy I have no doubt we will do so again.

正如我之前所說，我們作為一家公司以前經歷過行業週期，並且在每個行業週期中變得更加強大。憑藉對未來的興奮、我們領先的市場地位以及我們平台和策略的實力，我毫不懷疑我們會再做一次。

Before I turn the call over to Cary for our financial review and fourth quarter outlook, I'd like to again thank every member of the Impinj team for your constant effort driving our bold vision. I feel honored by my incredible good fortune to work with you. Cary?

在我將電話轉給 Cary 進行財務審查和第四季度展望之前，我要再次感謝 Impinj 團隊的每一位成員，感謝你們為推動我們大膽願景所做的不懈努力。能夠與您共事，我感到無比榮幸。卡里？

Thank you, Chris, and good afternoon, everyone. On today's call, I will review our third quarter financial results and fourth quarter financial outlook. Third quarter revenue was $65 million, down 24% sequentially compared with $86 million in second quarter 2023 and down 5% year-over-year from $68.3 million in third quarter 2022. Third quarter endpoint IC revenue was $48.6 million, down 25% sequentially compared with $64.9 million in second quarter 2023 and down 5% year-over-year from $51.2 million in third quarter 2022.

謝謝克里斯，大家下午好。在今天的電話會議上，我將回顧我們第三季的財務表現和第四季的財務前景。第三季營收為6,500 萬美元，比2023 年第二季的8,600 萬美元下降24%，比2022 年第三季的6,830 萬美元下降5%。第三季端點IC 營收為4,860 萬美元，比上一季下降25% 2023 年第二季為 6,490 萬美元，較 2022 年第三季的 5,120 萬美元年減 5%。

Looking forward, while we typically see fourth quarter endpoint IC revenue declined sequentially, this year, we expect improving inlay partner demand to drive an increase. Third quarter systems revenue was $16.4 million, down 22% sequentially compared with $21.1 million in second quarter 2023 and down 4% year-over-year from $17.1 million in third quarter 2022. Third quarter systems revenue was slightly below our expectations, driven by weakness in our Speedway reader business.

展望未來，雖然我們通常會看到第四季端點 IC 收入連續下降，但今年我們預期鑲嵌合作夥伴需求的改善將推動成長。第三季系統營收為1,640 萬美元，比2023 年第二季的2,110 萬美元下降22%，比2022 年第三季的1,710 萬美元下降4%。由於經濟疲軟，第三季系統營收略低於我們的預期在我們的 Speedway 閱讀器業務中。

On a sequential basis, revenue decreased across all product lines. On a year-over-year basis, gateway revenue increased while reader IC and reader revenue decreased. Looking ahead, we expect a sequential decline in fourth quarter systems revenue led by weakness in our partner-led reader business.

所有產品線的收入則是季減。與去年同期相比，網關收入增加，而讀卡機IC和讀卡機收入下降。展望未來，我們預期第四季系統營收將連續下降，原因是我們合作夥伴主導的讀卡機業務疲軟。

Third quarter gross margin was 50.5% compared with 53.3% in second quarter 2023 and 56.9% in third quarter 2022. The sequential decrease was driven by lower revenue on fixed costs. The year-over-year decrease was driven by lower endpoint IC product margins specifically a smaller specialty and industrial IC mix and lower systems product margins driven by increased costs.

第三季毛利率為 50.5%，而 2023 年第二季為 53.3%，2022 年第三季為 56.9%。季減是由於固定成本收入下降所致。年比下降的原因是端點 IC 產品利潤率下降，特別是專業和工業 IC 組合規模較小，以及成本增加導致系統產品利潤率下降。

Looking to the fourth quarter, we expect our gross margin to increase. Third quarter operating expense was $32.6 million compared with $35.9 million in second quarter 2023 and $29 million in third quarter 2022. Effective spend management across all major functions drove the lower-than-expected operating expense.

展望第四季度，我們預期毛利率將會上升。第三季營運費用為 3,260 萬美元，而 2023 年第二季為 3,590 萬美元，2022 年第三季為 2,900 萬美元。所有主要職能部門的有效支出管理導致營運費用低於預期。

Research and development expense was $15.5 million. Sales and marketing expense was $7.3 million. General and administrative expense was $9.7 million, including litigation expense of $3.4 million. We expect a sequential increase in fourth quarter operating expense due in part to increased litigation spend.

研究與開發費用為1550萬美元。銷售和行銷費用為 730 萬美元。一般及行政費用為 970 萬美元，其中訴訟費用為 340 萬美元。我們預計第四季度營運費用將環比增加，部分原因是訴訟支出增加。

Third quarter adjusted EBITDA was $300,000 compared with $10 million in second quarter 2023 and $9.8 million in third quarter 2022. Delivering positive adjusted EBITDA despite the significant revenue headwinds this quarter is a testament to both the strength of our business model and the execution of our team. Third quarter GAAP net loss was $15.8 million. Third quarter non-GAAP net income was $100,000 or $0.00 per share on a fully diluted basis.

第三季調整後EBITDA 為30 萬美元，而2023 年第二季為1,000 萬美元，2022 年第三季為980 萬美元。儘管本季營收面臨重大阻力，但調整後EBITDA 仍實現正值，這證明了我們業務模式的實力和團隊的執行力。第三季 GAAP 淨虧損為 1,580 萬美元。第三季非 GAAP 淨利潤為 100,000 美元，或完全稀釋後每股 0.00 美元。

Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the third quarter with cash, cash equivalents and investments of $113.2 million compared with $114.9 million in second quarter 2023 and $201.1 million in third quarter 2022. Inventory totaled $106.8 million, down $5.5 million from the prior quarter.

轉向資產負債表。截至第三季末，我們的現金、現金等價物和投資為1.132 億美元，而2023 年第二季為1.149 億美元，2022 年第三季為2.011 億美元。庫存總額為1.068 億美元，比上一季度減少550 萬美元。

Third quarter net cash due by operating activities was $1.7 million. Property and equipment purchases totaled $2.8 million. Free cash flow was negative $4.5 million.

第三季經營活動應付現金淨額為 170 萬美元。財產和設備採購總額為 280 萬美元。自由現金流為負 450 萬美元。

Before turning to our fourth quarter guidance, I want to highlight a few items unique to our results and outlook. First, as Chris mentioned, our partners made progress reducing their endpoint IC inventory in third quarter. We expect them to continue reducing their endpoint IC inventory in the fourth quarter. That reduction will position us well to capitalize on the large number of partner M800 inlay designs currently in certification and to begin ramping the M800 in 2024. Second, our third quarter inventory decreased with lower endpoint IC inventory more than offsetting higher systems inventory.

在轉向我們的第四季度指導之前，我想強調一些我們的業績和前景所特有的項目。首先，正如 Chris 所提到的，我們的合作夥伴在第三季在減少端點 IC 庫存方面取得了進展。我們預計他們將在第四季繼續減少端點 IC 庫存。這一減少將使我們能夠充分利用目前正在認證的大量合作夥伴M800 嵌體設計，並在2024 年開始提高M800 的產量。其次，我們第三季度的庫存下降，終端IC 庫存下降，足以抵消系統庫存上升的影響。

Looking to the fourth quarter, we anticipate further reducing our overall inventory, again, with declining endpoint IC inventory more than offsetting a small increase in systems inventory. We are confident inventory will normalize as demand recovers. Finally, we recently launched our first ESG materiality assessment, surveying a cross-section of our investors, customers and employees on ESG matters that are important to them. Impinj is strongly committed to ESG. At the same time, we view our journey as a partnership with all of our stakeholders to build a strong ESG road map for the future.

展望第四季度，我們預期整體庫存將進一步減少，端點 IC 庫存的下降足以抵銷系統庫存的小幅成長。我們相信，隨著需求的恢復，庫存將恢復正常。最後，我們最近啟動了首次 ESG 重要性評估，對我們的投資者、客戶和員工進行了跨部門調查，以了解對他們重要的 ESG 事務。 Impinj 堅定致力於 ESG。同時，我們將我們的旅程視為與所有利害關係人的合作夥伴關係，為未來制定強大的 ESG 路線圖。

Turning to our outlook. We expect fourth quarter revenue between $65.5 million and $68.5 million compared with $65 million in third quarter 2023, a 3% quarter-over-quarter increase at the midpoint. We expect adjusted EBITDA between a loss of $900,000 and a profit of $700,000. On the bottom line, we expect non-GAAP net income between a loss of $1.2 million and a profit of $300,000, reflecting non-GAAP fully diluted earnings per share between a loss of $0.04 and a profit of $0.01.

轉向我們的展望。我們預計第四季營收將在 6,550 萬美元至 6,850 萬美元之間，而 2023 年第三季營收為 6,500 萬美元，中位數較上季成長 3%。我們預計調整後 EBITDA 的虧損為 90 萬美元，獲利為 70 萬美元。就底線而言，我們預計非 GAAP 淨利潤將在虧損 120 萬美元至利潤 30 萬美元之間，反映非 GAAP 完全攤薄每股收益在虧損 0.04 美元至利潤 0.01 美元之間。

In closing, I want to thank the Impinj team, our customers, our suppliers and you, our investors, for your ongoing support. I will now turn the call to the operator to open the question-and-answer session. MJ?

最後，我要感謝 Impinj 團隊、我們的客戶、我們的供應商以及您（我們的投資者）的持續支持。我現在將通話轉給接線員以開始問答環節。喬丹？

(Operator Instructions) Today's first question comes from Harsh Kumar with Piper Sandler.

（操作員說明）今天的第一個問題來自 Harsh Kumar 和 Piper Sandler。

Chris, Cary and the team at Impinj, you guys sound a lot better this time around. It looks like progress is insight.

Chris、Cary 和 Impinj 的團隊，這次你們聽起來好多了。看起來進步就是洞察力。

Thank you, Harsh.

謝謝你，嚴酷。

Had a quick question. Could you give us -- I know you guys were working on destocking your inventory at the inlay partners. And I know you talked about it in the script, but could you give us a sense of how much is left in the system? And how much do you think you might have left in the December quarter? How much you want to take out in the December quarter? In other words, if none of this had happened, where would your real revenues have been in the December quarter?

有一個簡短的問題。您能否告訴我們—我知道你們正在努力減少鑲嵌合作夥伴的庫存。我知道你在劇本中談到了這一點，但是你能給我們介紹一下系統中還剩下多少嗎？您認為 12 月所在季度還剩下多少錢？您想在 12 月季度取出多少資金？換句話說，如果這一切都沒有發生，您在 12 月的季度實際收入會在哪裡？

Harsh, thanks for the question. This is Cary. I think I'll take that one. Our progress in burning down channel inventory in Q3 was mix. We had some partners on track or ahead of schedule and some behind. In aggregate, though, we burned down less than I expected going into the quarter. Based on our estimate of demand, we will take out more channel inventory in Q4 and anticipate our large partners exiting the year reasonably healthy, our smaller partners, however, may take a little more time to get healthy. We're not giving a specific number of weeks of channel inventory because those are based on our estimates of demand, and that demand environment remains very fluid at this point. So -- but at the end of the day, we're making good progress on reducing channel inventory.

嚴厲，謝謝你的提問。這是卡里。我想我會接受那個。第三季我們在消耗通路庫存方面的進展參差不齊。我們有一些合作夥伴正在按計劃進行或提前完成，而另一些合作夥伴則落後了。不過，總的來說，我們進入本季的消耗量低於我的預期。根據我們對需求的估計，我們將在第四季度拿出更多的通路庫存，並預計我們的大型合作夥伴今年將相當健康地退出，但我們的小型合作夥伴可能需要更多時間才能恢復健康。我們沒有給出渠道庫存的具體週數，因為這些是基於我們對需求的估計，而目前的需求環境仍然非常不穩定。所以，但歸根結底，我們在減少渠道庫存方面取得了良好進展。

Great. And it's good to hear you think you'll be done by December, which was the original plan. And then I had a second one, your largest one -- one of your largest customers reported this afternoon. And they also seem to imply that we're close to bottom on the retail apparel issues and things are actually starting to look up, just kind of like you mentioned, but I was curious, can I get your thoughts on the topic, how believable do you think this is this time around? Are you seeing independent validation of this outside of what your partners are telling you? And then also, they seem pretty excited about food as a category as well. Could you also comment on that? And I'll get back in line.

偉大的。很高興聽到您認為您將在 12 月之前完成，這是最初的計劃。然後我收到了第二個，你們最大的一個——你們最大的客戶之一今天下午報告的。它們似乎也暗示我們在零售服裝問題上已接近底部，而且情況實際上開始好轉，就像您提到的那樣，但我很好奇，我可以了解您對這個主題的想法嗎？你認為現在是這個時候嗎？除了您的合作夥伴告訴您的內容之外，您是否看到了對此的獨立驗證？而且，他們似乎對食品這個類別也非常興奮。您能否也對此發表評論？我會回去排隊。

Yes. Thanks, Harsh. So we and our largest customers are seeing roughly the same thing. We obviously talk to our direct inlay partners, but we also talk to end users. I was just at the wireless IoT event in Germany last week, met with several of our end users. Although the macro environment is still difficult, and as we said in our prepared remarks, it's still too early to call bottom. We do see improving demand out there or direct -- our end users are starting to see -- they see things picking up a little bit. Import data and sales out data, at least in the U.S. is starting to normalize. And so we're feeling those green shoots. So like we said, it's too early to call bottom.

是的。謝謝，嚴酷。因此，我們和我們最大的客戶看到了大致相同的情況。顯然，我們與直接鑲嵌合作夥伴交談，但我們也與最終用戶交談。上週我剛參加了在德國舉行的無線物聯網活動，並會見了我們的幾位最終用戶。儘管宏觀環境仍然困難，正如我們在準備好的發言中所說，現在判斷底部還為時過早。我們確實看到需求的改善或直接 - 我們的最終用戶開始看到 - 他們看到情況有所改善。進口數據和銷售數據，至少在美國開始正常化。所以我們已經感受到這些萌芽了。所以就像我們說的，現在判斷底部還為時過早。

And I guess I'd like to add that North America seems to be well ahead in terms of the correction. Europe feels behind and certain parts of Asia are mixed, obviously because they're just large, but it is behind as well. So time will tell, but I'm personally feeling pretty good that things are improving out there in the market.

我想我想補充一點，北美在修正方面似乎遙遙領先。歐洲感覺落後，而亞洲某些地區的情況則好壞參半，顯然是因為它們面積很大，但它也落後了。所以時間會證明一切，但我個人感覺很好，市場狀況正在改善。

On the food side?

在食品方面？

Go ahead, I'm sorry.

繼續吧，對不起。

No, no, no, that was it. .

不，不，不，就是這樣。 。

Okay. On the food side, we do see food as an opportunity. There are 2 aspects to food. One is tracking items at the pallet carton and case level. And we have been categorizing those food opportunities in what we call supply chain and logistics because it's primarily moving the food items around. There are also food opportunities in direct item tagging, and those opportunities are moving forward. We have not commented on them directly on our calls because I personally feel it's a little bit premature to be citing some of these opportunities when they're just starting to get going. But they are certainly out there. And as they come forward, I can guarantee that some of them are going to be quite large. But our preference is to focus right now on where we actually see the movement, which is on the pallet, carton and box and kind of keep our powder dry on the individual food opportunities, which, of course, like I said, could be much larger, but I think it's premature.

好的。在食品方面，我們確實將食品視為一個機會。食物有兩個面向。一是追蹤托盤紙箱和箱子等級的物品。我們一直將這些食品機會歸類為供應鏈和物流，因為它主要是運輸食品。直接物品標記也存在食品機會，這些機會正在向前發展。我們沒有在電話中直接對它們發表評論，因為我個人認為在這些機會剛開始時引用其中一些機會還為時過早。但他們肯定就在那裡。當他們出現時，我可以保證其中一些將會相當大。但我們現在更傾向於關注我們實際看到的移動的地方，即托盤、紙箱和盒子上，並在個別食品機會上保持我們的粉末乾燥，當然，就像我說的，這可能會很多。更大，但我認為現在還為時過早。

The next question comes from Toshiya Hari with Goldman Sachs. .

下一個問題來自高盛的 Toshiya Hari。 。

I wanted to follow up on how to think about inlay partner inventory and, I guess, your sell-in going forward. Cary, I think you mentioned that you expect your large partners to exit the year with relatively healthy inventory, but perhaps some of your smaller partners to have maybe excess inventory at the end of the year. Did I catch that right, first of all? And then second of all, assuming your large partners exit the year in a healthy spot and you're selling into, I guess, sell-through starting Q1. How should we think about the sequential in your endpoint IC business in Q1? And I guess any preliminary thoughts on 2024 for your endpoint IC business would be super helpful as well.

我想跟進如何考慮鑲嵌合作夥伴庫存，以及我想您未來的銷售情況。卡里，我想您提到您希望您的大型合作夥伴以相對健康的庫存退出今年，但也許您的一些較小的合作夥伴在年底可能擁有過剩的庫存。首先我沒聽錯嗎？其次，假設您的大型合作夥伴以良好的狀態退出今年，並且我猜您的銷售從第一季開始就已售罄。我們該如何看待第一季端點IC業務的連續性？我想對 2024 年端點 IC 業務的任何初步想法也會非常有幫助。

Yes. Thanks, Toshiya. This is Cary. So yes, you got the larger inlay partners, we expect to exit the year reasonably healthy. The smaller inlay partners are going to take a little bit more time. As I think about the first quarter, we're going to stick to our knitting here and guide just 1 quarter at a time. The market remains very dynamic. We're just now starting to see improvement in endpoint ICs while our systems are remaining soft. And that's not unlike what we saw as we exited COVID. The endpoint ICs recovered before systems did, but we're still in the early stages of what we hope to be a recovery. So we're not going to lean too far forward on our guidance for beyond Q4 at this point.

是的。謝謝，俊也。這是卡里。所以，是的，你有更大的鑲嵌合作夥伴，我們預計今年會相當健康地結束。較小的鑲嵌合作夥伴將需要更多的時間。當我想到第一季時，我們將堅持我們的編織，一次只指導一個季度。市場仍然非常活躍。我們現在剛開始看到端點 IC 的改進，而我們的系統仍然很軟。這與我們擺脫新冠疫情時所看到的情況並無不同。端點 IC 在系統之前恢復，但我們仍處於我們希望的恢復的早期階段。因此，目前我們不會對第四季以後的指導過度傾斜。

Toshiya, I will point you to my prepared remarks where we're leaning about as far as we want to, where I said looking into 2024, this is with respect to our endpoint ICs. Looking into 2024, we see secular growth in both parcel tracking and retail and then cited the self-checkout driving 100% tagging and expansion in general merchandise, of course, we anticipate seeing a pickup in retail apparel as well, driven by more than just 100% tagging due to self-checkout, but that is a driver as well. And so we are guardedly optimistic for 2024, but I think that's as far as we want to go right now.

Toshiya，我將向您指出我準備好的言論，我們正在盡可能地進行討論，我說展望 2024 年，這是關於我們的端點 IC 的。展望 2024 年，我們看到包裹追蹤和零售業的長期成長，然後提到自助結帳推動了一般商品 100% 的標籤和擴張，當然，我們預計零售服裝也會出現回升，其推動因素不僅僅是由於自助結帳，100% 帶有標籤，但這也是一個驅動因素。因此，我們對 2024 年持謹慎樂觀的態度，但我認為這就是我們目前想要實現的目標。

Got it. That's very fair and helpful. As my follow-up on gross margins, Cary, you talked about Q4 being up sequentially. I was hoping you can kind of walk through the puts and takes, not only for Q4 but also over the next couple of quarters, if you can kind of touch on your expectations for foundry costs or wafer costs, your pricing profile going forward? And you talked about M800 coming in starting next year. But how can that help your gross margin profile, say, over the next couple of quarters?

知道了。這是非常公平和有幫助的。作為我對毛利率的跟進，卡里，您談到第四季度連續上升。我希望您能介紹一下您的看法，不僅是第四季度，而且是接下來的幾個季度，如果您能談談您對代工成本或晶圓成本的預期，以及您未來的定價概況？您談到 M800 從明年開始上市。但這對您未來幾季的毛利率有何幫助？

So as I look -- to start with Q4, I think gross margin is going to increase. If you think back to my guidance on Q3 gross margin, I said that we'd be impacted by 2 things. First, we have lower revenue scale against fixed cost in our operating cost structure. And then we had a softer mix of product, particularly reader IC. As I look into the Q4, I think our product mix normalizes, so we get some of that back, but we're still subscale at a guide, midpoint of $67 million. So that's the dynamic. We'll see a little bit of lift, but I don't anticipate us getting back to the 53% that is our targeted level right now.

因此，從第四季開始，我認為毛利率將會增加。如果你回想一下我對第三季毛利率的指導，我說我們會受到兩件事的影響。首先，我們的營運成本結構中的收入規模相對於固定成本較低。然後我們有了更柔和的產品組合，特別是讀卡機 IC。當我研究第四季時，我認為我們的產品組合正常化，因此我們得到了一些回報，但我們仍然處於指導規模的小規模，即 6700 萬美元的中點。這就是動態。我們會看到一點提升，但我預計我們不會回到我們目前的目標水準 53%。

As I look into 2024, I expect the mix to continue to be normal. I expect eventually revenue to start growing again as the retail market recovers. And as we grow back into the revenue level that we were in the first half of this year, I would expect to get the full realization of scale in our gross margin. And that takes us back to that 53% targeted range.

展望 2024 年，我預期這種結構將持續保持正常。我預計隨著零售市場的復甦，收入最終將再次開始成長。隨著我們恢復到今年上半年的收入水平，我預計我們的毛利率將完全實現規模化。這讓我們回到了 53% 的目標範圍。

Now on top of that, as the M800 layers in, I expect gross margin to further improve. We're at the very early days of the M800 ramp. Most of our partners are still in the certification or qualification process. So we're not really shipping M800s at this point. As they make their way through that qualification process, we'll start shipping in and then the demand will start ramping. I will keep you up to date on our progress on that ramp.

現在最重要的是，隨著 M800 的推出，我預計毛利率將進一步提高。我們正處於 M800 坡道的早期階段。我們的大多數合作夥伴仍處於認證或資格認證過程中。所以我們目前還沒有真正出貨 M800。當他們通過資格認證過程時，我們將開始出貨，然後需求就會開始增加。我將隨時向您通報我們在該坡道上的最新進展。

Yes. And when Cary says, we're not really shipping M800s yet, it really is relative to the overall opportunity in front of us from M800, which is quite large. The ramp has started, and we have smaller opportunities out there going now, but our direct partners are waiting for certifications and approvals and all in the approval cycle right now. For the most part, the approval cycle right now. And as those approvals start coming through, we expect the ramp to accelerate.

是的。當 Cary 說，我們還沒有真正發貨 M800 時，這確實是相對於我們面前的 M800 的整體機會而言，這個機會相當大。斜坡已經開始，我們現在有較小的機會，但我們的直接合作夥伴正在等待認證和批准，目前一切都在批准週期中。大多數情況下，現在是審批週期。隨著這些批准開始獲得，我們預計成長速度將會加快。

The next question comes from Jim Ricchiuti with Needham & Company.

下一個問題來自 Needham & Company 的 Jim Ricchiuti。

I think earlier in your script, you talked about steps you're taking to improve demand forecasting and inventory management. I was just wondering if you could elaborate on that.

我認為在您的腳本的前面部分，您談到了為改進需求預測和庫存管理而採取的步驟。我只是想知道你能否詳細說明一下。

I will start with the demand forecasting and I'll probably let Cary layer in as well. On the demand forecasting side, the market turned earlier this year, it wasn't just we who were -- who didn't anticipate the magnitude of the decline. It was our direct partners as well. When I was at the conference just last week, I had many of our partner, inlay partners and service bureaus basically said, "They didn't see it coming." And I'm feeling personally, we should have seen it coming. We should have seen it coming at least better than we did, and it's a learning experience for us.

我將從需求預測開始，我可能也會讓卡里參與其中。在需求預測方面，今年市場出現了較早的轉變，不僅是我們沒有預料到下降的幅度。這也是我們的直接合作夥伴。當我上週參加會議時，我們的許多合作夥伴、鑲嵌合作夥伴和服務機構基本上都說，“他們沒有預見到它的到來。”我個人感覺，我們應該預見它的到來。我們應該看到它至少比我們所做的更好，這對我們來說是一次學習經驗。

We were significantly relying on our industry's view. What I want to do now is rely both on our industry's view and a lot more on the macro view, leveraging what our enterprise end users are saying directly, trends in the overall market, trends in the retail market, trends in the supply chain and logistics market, and taking into account at a higher level what the macro is doing and use that to kind of set a basis for ourselves. So be more forward-looking in terms of what we're doing from a larger macro perspective.

我們非常依賴產業的觀點。我現在要做的就是既要依靠我們行業的看法，更多的是宏觀的看法，利用我們企業終端用戶直接說的，整個市場的趨勢，零售市場的趨勢，供應鏈的趨勢以及物流市場，並在更高層面上考慮宏觀正在做什麼，並利用它為我們自己奠定基礎。所以從更大的宏觀角度來看我們正在做的事情要更具前瞻性。

I'm not saying we did anything wrong in the past. We did everything we could do in terms of engaging with our partners and working with them and understanding what they expected their demand to be, but I want to layer on top of that an overall understanding of the broad market because, quite frankly, that's what we're selling into right now. We're selling into the retail macro. Cary, do you want to take the question on inventory management?

我並不是說我們過去做錯了什麼。我們盡了一切努力與我們的合作夥伴進行接觸，與他們合作，了解他們期望的需求是什麼，但我想在此基礎上對廣闊市場進行全面了解，因為坦率地說，這就是我們想要的。我們現在正在出售。我們正在向零售宏觀市場進行銷售。卡里，你想回答有關庫存管理的問題嗎？

Yes. Yes, Jim, this is Cary. So on the channel inventory side, we're doing multiple things. We're increasing the frequency of our channel inventory reporting, so we can stay closer to, call it, sudden swings in the channel inventories, which will help inform demand planning as well. We're also going, reaching further into our distribution model, if you will, to talk to customers and partners beyond our inlay partners, our direct partners to understand how their demand is trending, how their inventory levels are. All in an effort to better inform how we and our partners run the level of inventory in the channel.

是的。是的，吉姆，這是卡里。所以在通路庫存方面，我們正在做很多事情。我們正在提高渠道庫存報告的頻率，這樣我們就可以更接近渠道庫存的突然波動，這也將有助於為需求計劃提供資訊。如果您願意的話，我們還將進一步深入我們的分銷模式，與我們的鑲嵌合作夥伴、我們的直接合作夥伴之外的客戶和合作夥伴交談，以了解他們的需求趨勢以及庫存水平。所有這些都是為了更好地了解我們和我們的合作夥伴如何管理通路中的庫存水準。

Got it. My follow-up question, Chris, Amazon recently talked about their use of RFID for this Just Walk Out technology solution. Can you comment at all if you're working with them? And if you can't talk specifically about it, I'd be curious just to get your perspective on their comments about this RFID application.

知道了。我的後續問題，克里斯，亞馬遜最近談到了他們在 Just Walk Out 技術解決方案中使用 RFID 的情況。如果您與他們合作，您能發表評論嗎？如果您不能具體談論它，我很想知道您對他們對此 RFID 應用的評論的看法。

Jim, to the first part of the question, I obviously can't say anything about any particular opportunity that has been identified publicly as associated with us and not associated with us. In terms of the broader opportunity, I have always firmly believed that the Just Walk Out solution or whatever you want to call it, the different opportunities, will include both a combination of RAIN RFID and vision. It just makes logical sense. If you use RAIN RFID, you can tag individual items. For example, for a meat product or something like that, you know exactly what the average cost is because the items cost is attached to the tag. And vision system can just tell you what the item is, not its weight.

吉姆，對於問題的第一部分，我顯然不能對任何已公開確定與我們相關或與我們無關的特定機會發表任何評論。就更廣泛的機會而言，我始終堅信，Just Walk Out 解決方案或無論您如何稱呼它，不同的機會將包括 RAIN RFID 和視覺的結合。這完全符合邏輯。如果您使用 RAIN RFID，您可以為單一物品新增標籤。例如，對於肉類產品或類似產品，您可以確切地知道平均成本是多少，因為商品成本已附加到標籤上。視覺系統只能告訴你該物品是什麼，而不是它的重量。

For loss prevention opportunities, we can identify the item being stolen, but can't tell you anything about the person stealing it. The vision system can tell you about the person stealing it and not much typically about the item. So I see going forward, the opportunity to blend the 2 technologies together to provide an overall Just Walk Out opportunity, which will include loss prevention as we're driving into.

對於防損機會，我們可以識別被盜的物品，但無法告訴您有關盜竊者的任何資訊。視覺系統可以告訴你偷竊它的人的信息，但通常不會告訴你該物品的信息。因此，我認為未來有機會將這兩種技術融合在一起，以提供整體的「Just Walk Out」機會，包括我們正在推進的損失預防。

So without speaking about any one company's particular comments, I will say again that I have several meetings last week around this overall opportunity to speed consumer checkout and quite frankly, to delight consumers in their shopping experience. And those conversations all rely on the same thing. It's a combination of RAIN RFID and vision systems and self-checkout to drive an overall positive customer experience.

因此，在不談論任何一家公司的具體評論的情況下，我要再說一遍，上週我圍繞這一總體機會召開了幾次會議，以加快消費者結帳速度，坦率地說，讓消費者享受購物體驗。這些對話都依賴同一個東西。它結合了 RAIN RFID 和視覺系統以及自助結帳，以推動整體積極的客戶體驗。

The next question comes from Mike Walkley with Canaccord Genuity.

下一個問題來自 Canaccord Genuity 的 Mike Walkley。

Great. It's good to hear some of the green shoot comments. But Chris, I'm going to switch gears a little bit. Just you mentioned the updates with NXP, can you help us maybe frame the opportunity there? You talked about a potential monetary award, is this something maybe you think you could reach a royalty-type agreement with them over time? And I know you're trying to go back after the injunction and maybe you could share with us how your customers feel about the potential of an injunction with NXP, if you're able to meet demand, shouldn't the injunction happen down the road?

偉大的。很高興聽到一些新芽評論。但克里斯，我要稍微改變一下態度。您剛才提到了恩智浦的更新，您能幫助我們建造那裡的機會嗎？您談到了潛在的金錢獎勵，您是否認為隨著時間的推移您可以與他們達成特許權使用費類型的協議？我知道您在禁令發布後試圖返回，也許您可以與我們分享您的客戶對恩智浦禁令的潛力的看法，如果您能夠滿足需求，那麼禁令是否應該在路？

Yes, Mike, thank you. And I'm going to pause here a little bit because those are difficult questions for me to answer given that we're in the thick of it right now. I'll say a few things, and then I'll turn it back to you to kind of follow up, but I'll answer what I can.

是的，麥克，謝謝你。我要在這裡暫停一下，因為考慮到我們現在正處於困境之中，這些問題對我來說很難回答。我會說一些事情，然後我會將其轉回給您進行跟進，但我會盡我所能回答。

In terms of the monetary award in California, the jury initially awarded us roughly $18 point million (sic) [$18.5 million] in damages and lost profits. The judge went back and said there are some foreign sales that should be included in there and instructed the parties to get together and discuss what the actual damages and lost profits award should be and that came out to be roughly $13.1 million, subject still to ongoing appeals, but that would be the amount in the California case. Our California case was against NXP USA. It did not include the NXP Dutch affiliate, whose sales are much larger.

就加州的賠償金而言，陪審團最初判給我們約 18 百萬分之一（原文如此）[1850 萬美元]的損害賠償和利潤損失。法官回過頭說，其中應該包括一些外國銷售，並指示雙方聚在一起討論實際損害賠償和利潤損失賠償應該是多少，結果約為 1,310 萬美元，仍需繼續進行。上訴，但這就是加州案件的金額。我們在加州的案件是針對恩智浦美國公司的。其中不包括恩智浦荷蘭子公司，該公司的銷售額要大得多。

So we have filed suit on the same patents against NXP Dutch affiliate. We don't need to litigate the patents in that case anymore. We will just be litigating the damages and lost profits amounts coming to us. And that patent -- that case has not been scheduled yet, but we look forward to hope -- happening hopefully soon and getting awarded a bit significantly additional damages and some lost of profits.

因此，我們已針對恩智浦荷蘭子公司的相同專利提起訴訟。在這種情況下我們不需要再提起專利訴訟了。我們只會對我們所遭受的損失和利潤損失金額提起訴訟。該專利——該案件尚未安排，但我們期待——希望很快發生，並獲得一點顯著的額外損害賠償和一些利潤損失。

In terms of the settlements with NXP, I can't really comment on anything at this time. Like I said, we're in the thick of it and anything I'd say could be construed one way or another or [damage]. In terms of the overall market, we are obviously in discussion with our inlay partners and service bureaus. I can't speak for NXP, but I would imagine they are as well. We obviously want to see the market continue to grow and go forward. At the same time, we feel it is very important to protect our intellectual property. And I will note that in California, one of the patents was found to be willfully infringed. So we're in this delicate situation, where we want to drive the market. But at the same time, we want NXP to respect our intellectual property, and we are navigating that dynamic as best we can and navigating a resolution as best we can and confident in our case, confident in the eventual outcome. I turn it back to you to see if you have a follow-up or if there's anything I can answer a little bit more, but I'm not trying to go much further.

關於與恩智浦的和解，我目前無法發表任何評論。就像我說的，我們正處於困境中，我所說的任何事情都可以以這種或另一種方式解釋或[損害]。就整體市場而言，我們顯然正在與我們的鑲嵌合作夥伴和服務機構進行討論。我不能代表恩智浦發言，但我想他們也是。我們顯然希望看到市場繼續成長並向前發展。同時，我們認為保護我們的智慧財產權非常重要。我要指出的是，在加州，其中一項專利被發現被故意侵犯。因此，我們正處於這種微妙的境地，我們希望推動市場。但同時，我們希望恩智浦尊重我們的智慧財產權，我們正在盡最大努力推動這一動態，並盡最大努力製定解決方案，並對我們的情況充滿信心，對最終結果充滿信心。我把它轉回給你，看看你是否有後續行動，或者是否有什麼我可以回答更多的問題，但我不想走得更遠。

That's very helpful. Help us think about it. I'll switch gears for my second question. Just maybe for Cary, just the overall team. I know we're in Q4 now, and at the time when you start to negotiate pricing and you have new products come in like the M800, any thoughts on how we should think about endpoint pricing in '24 versus '23? Or is it too early to tell?

這非常有幫助。幫助我們思考一下。我將換個話題來回答第二個問題。也許只是對卡里來說，只是整個團隊。我知道我們現在正處於第四季度，當您開始協商定價並且有 M800 等新產品問世時，您對我們應該如何考慮 24 年與 23 年的端點定價有什麼想法嗎？還是現在說還太早？

Mike, this is Cary. I can take a shot at that. So historically, if you go back multiple years, we've seen ASPs decline annually, call it, below to mid-single-digit range. Those declines have been accompanied by wafer cost downs. And that's how we've been able to maintain and improve gross margin over the years.

麥克，這是卡里。我可以嘗試一下。因此，從歷史上看，如果回顧多年，我們會發現平均售價每年都在下降，低於中個位數範圍。這些下降伴隨著晶圓成本的下降。這就是我們多年來能夠維持和提高毛利率的方式。

Over the last couple of years, however, we've been in an inflationary environment. And as a result, our ASPs have actually gone up. We're still in that inflationary environment as we're not expecting a wafer cost down next year. And as we go into those conversations, which are happening -- or not just happening now, they're in constant dialogue with our partners, but as we go into those types of pricing discussion, our goal remains the same. We need to maintain the integrity of our margin model.

然而，在過去的幾年裡，我們一直處於通貨膨脹的環境中。結果，我們的平均售價實際上有所上升。我們仍然處於通膨環境中，因為我們預計明年晶圓成本不會下降。當我們進入這些正在發生的對話時——或者不僅僅是現在發生的，他們與我們的合作夥伴不斷對話，但當我們進入這些類型的定價討論時，我們的目標保持不變。我們需要保持保證金模型的完整性。

The next question comes from Scott Searle with ROTH MKM.

下一個問題來自 ROTH MKM 的 Scott Searle。

Congratulations on a nice job in a tough environment. .

恭喜您在艱難的環境中找到了一份出色的工作。 。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you, Scott.

謝謝你，斯科特。

Maybe to start digging a little bit on the green shoots starting to clear the decks for M800 adoption. I was wondering if you could dive in on that a little bit more, some more details in terms of -- what you're seeing in terms of the interest level, the timing of the adoption cycle and how that's teeing up additional services such as authenticity going forward?

也許要開始挖掘一些萌芽，為 M800 的採用掃清障礙。我想知道您是否可以更深入地討論一下，一些更多的細節——您所看到的興趣水平、採用週期的時間安排以及如何準備額外的服務，例如未來的真實性？

So I'll start here, and I'll let others jump in. So in terms of the M800 itself, there is very high excitement level about that product out in the market. I had multiple of our partners, direct -- inlay partners and service bureaus talk to me about M800 and said you guys have created an incredible chip. It has better sensitivity, better overall performance, better reliability, quality, just that we're really excited about this product.

所以我將從這裡開始，然後讓其他人加入。所以就 M800 本身而言，市場上對該產品的興奮程度非常高。我有多個合作夥伴、直接鑲嵌合作夥伴和服務機構與我談論 M800，並說你們創造了一款令人難以置信的晶片。它具有更好的靈敏度、更好的整體性能、更好的可靠性、質量，只是我們對這款產品感到非常興奮。

Well, we did badly in any of our prior ones. It's just this one. I feel really good about where we are. And in some ways, it's not really that surprising because we did our first chip, the M700 and a 65-nanometer node, first chip in that node. Every time you do something the first time, you're cautious. So you don't pull out all the stops. And we turned M800 and we pull out all the stops. Our partners see it. In terms of where we are in the market, our leading partners have multiple inlay designs. Those inlay designs are in certification, both in the U.S. at the University of Auburn at their ARC lab at direct end customers and in Europe in the same.

好吧，我們之前的任何一次都做得很糟糕。就這一個吧。我對我們所處的位置感覺非常好。在某些方面，這並不令人驚訝，因為我們製作了我們的第一款晶片​​ M700 和 65 奈米節點，即該節點中的第一款晶片​​。每次你第一次做某件事時，你都會很謹慎。所以你不用全力以赴。我們轉向 M800，全力以赴。我們的合作夥伴看到了這一點。就我們的市場定位而言，我們的領先合作夥伴擁有多種鑲嵌設計。這些鑲嵌設計已獲得認證，無論是在美國奧本大學的 ARC 實驗室還是在歐洲的直接最終客戶。

There is a lot of enthusiasm for that product. And so the pace of adoption will be paced by how quickly those inlays get through certification and qualification of the end users. But as Cary noted, we expect to see a ramp starting -- significant ramp starting early next year. It's a little bit early to excite the pace, but I'm guardedly optimistic that M800 will rapidly become our key volume.

人們對該產品抱持著很大的熱情。因此，採用的速度將取決於這些嵌體通過最終用戶認證和資格的速度。但正如卡里指出的那樣，我們預計將在明年初開始大幅成長。現在就加快步伐還為時過早，但我對 M800 將迅速成為我們的關鍵產品持謹慎樂觀的態度。

In terms of the authentication opportunity, that is our M775, which is basically our M700 series with an authentication engine built in. We have multiple use cases right now on tax tracking, health care and specialty food applications. We seeded the market. We've shipped a significant number of chips into the market. That product will go kind of through the typical S-curve of adoption where we see the market, the opportunities are there, and then they get qualified and used in and then it picks up. And so we're in that seeding the market and getting going. We also see other opportunities out there in fashion and apparel and footwear and pharmaceutical applications and others. So I am excited for that product.

就身分驗證機會而言，那就是我們的 M775，它基本上是我們的 M700 系列，內建了身分驗證引擎。我們現在在稅務追蹤、醫療保健和特色食品應用方面有多個用例。我們為市場播種。我們已經向市場投放了大量晶片。該產品將經歷典型的 S 型採用曲線，我們看到市場、機會就在那裡，然後它們獲得資格並被使用，然後它就會回升。因此，我們正在為市場播種並繼續前進。我們也在時尚、服裝、鞋類、製藥應用等領域看到了其他機會。所以我對該產品感到興奮。

That said, because it's a completely new offering really, the first general purpose authentication I see. I don't think you should expect a super rapid pace of adoption because we've got to get in front of customers and we are now and our partners are as well. But basically educate them in terms of what this thing is and what we've done for the market. That's going to take a little bit of time.

也就是說，因為它確實是一個全新的產品，是我看到的第一個通用身份驗證。我認為您不應該期待超快的採用速度，因為我們必須走在客戶面前，我們現在就是這樣，我們的合作夥伴也是如此。但基本上是讓他們了解這個東西是什麼以及我們為市場做了什麼。這需要一點時間。

Just as a fun fact, I had last week one -- our newest partner come to me and without citing any of the details, raise the opportunity again of, well, can't you put this chip into currency to protect you against counterfeit currency? And of course, that opportunity is way out in the future, and we're not prepared to do that. And the chip has to be made thinner and there's a lot of things you have to do. But we've got partners who are thinking at that level that the M775 with its authentication capability is a game changer, and that's what I really like.

作為一個有趣的事實，上週我有一個- 我們最新的合作夥伴來找我，沒有引用任何細節，再次提出機會，好吧，你不能把這個芯片放入貨幣中以保護你免受假幣侵害嗎？ ？當然，這種機會在未來已經很遙遠了，我們不准備這樣做。而且晶片必須做得更薄，還有很多事情要做。但我們的合作夥伴在這個層面上認為具有身份驗證功能的 M775 可以改變遊戲規則，而這正是我真正喜歡的。

Perfect. Very helpful. And as a follow-up, I think you indicated that this year despite the headwinds, you're still anticipating endpoint IC growth in the ballpark of 29% CAGR, which has been in the historic range. Yes, as we look to 2024, you've got some other items that are coming on board, a big customer in terms of general merchandise, big logistics customers starting to ramp up. I'm wondering if you could kind of give us some benchmarks in terms of how we should be thinking about 2024. Is it an inflection year that we start to see this start to accelerate beyond that historically?

完美的。很有幫助。作為後續行動，我認為您表示，儘管今年存在逆風，但您仍然預計端點 IC 的複合年增長率約為 29%，這已經處於歷史範圍內。是的，當我們展望 2024 年時，還有一些其他商品即將上市，一般商品方面的大客戶，大物流客戶開始增加。我想知道您能否為我們提供一些關於我們應該如何思考 2024 年的基準。這是我們開始看到這種情況開始加速超越歷史記錄的拐點年嗎？

I'm almost prepared to quote Lincoln, "Excitement for the future, with no prediction with respect to it is ventured." We feel excitement for 2024, as I said in my prepared remarks. But we guide 1 quarter at a time. And I don't want us to get too far ahead of ourselves. Cary, anything you'd add? .

我幾乎準備引用林肯的話：“對未來的興奮，但不冒險進行任何預測。”正如我在準備好的演講中所說，我們對 2024 年感到興奮。但我們一次指引一個季度。我不希望我們走得太遠。卡里，你還有什麼要補充的嗎？ 。

I'd just reiterate that as Chris said, that the opportunities are there for secular growth for additional programs to roll on, but the market is still pretty dynamic right now. We're still seeing the softness in our systems business, while retailer started -- or while endpoint ICs are starting to recover. So just given that dynamic nature, we're going to hold off on leaning too far into the future at this point.

我只是重申，正如克里斯所說，長期成長的機會是存在的，可以開展更多計劃，但市場目前仍然相當活躍。當零售商開始復甦或端點 IC 開始復甦時，我們的系統業務仍然疲軟。因此，考慮到這種動態的性質，我們此時將暫緩對未來過於傾斜。

And I think Lincoln said with optimism in the future, not exactly, but I misquoted it a little bit. Sorry. .

我認為林肯對未來表示樂觀，不完全正確，但我引用得有點錯誤。對不起。 。

That's okay. It sounds like you guys have some excitement and optimism. So thank you.

沒關係。聽起來你們有些興奮和樂觀。所以謝謝。

We do. Thank you. Thanks, Scott.

我們的確是。謝謝。謝謝，斯科特。

(Operator Instructions) The next question is a follow-up from Harsh Kumar with Piper Sandler.

（操作員說明）下一個問題是 Harsh Kumar 和 Piper Sandler 的後續問題。

Chris, I wanted to go back to the question that was just asked about the growth for endpoint IC in 2023. I think -- correct me if I'm wrong, but I heard 29% endpoint IC growth for the business in 2023. Is that accurate?

Chris，我想回到剛剛被問到的關於 2023 年端點 IC 增長的問題。我想——如果我錯了，請糾正我，但我聽說 2023 年端點 IC 業務增長 29%。是那麼準確嗎？

What we said was we expect our endpoint IC volumes to be consistent with our industry's historical unit volume CAGR. The historical CAGR has been 29%. We didn't peg ourselves at 29%. What we basically said is we're implying a range around that number. But in the general vicinity of our historical industry unit volume CAGR without citing an accurate number and not something within like 1% accuracy or something like that.

我們所說的是，我們預計我們的端點 IC 銷售將與產業歷史單位銷售複合年增長率保持一致。歷史複合年增長率為29%。我們並沒有將自己定為 29%。我們基本上所說的是，我們暗示了圍繞該數字的一個範圍。但在我們歷史產業單位量複合年增長率的大致範圍內，沒有引用準確的數字，也沒有提供 1% 的準確度或類似的數據。

But the historical CAGR has exceeded 25%. If you look back years and years, right now, it's in the range of 29% depending on what each year brings. And so we expect ourselves. We expect our EBIT volume growth to exceed 25% and be in the general range of the historical unit volume CAGR.

但歷史複合年增長率已超過25%。如果你回顧過去幾年，現在，它在 29% 的範圍內，取決於每年帶來的情況。所以我們對自己有這樣的期望。我們預計息稅前利潤成長將超過 25%，並處於歷史單位銷售複合年增長率的總體範圍內。

So as I'm looking at my model, and the reason why I asked this question was because I'm looking at my model. So I need to be close to that number of 29%, call it even 27% or 28%, implies a pretty significant sequential uptick in the December quarter, somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% to 40% sequential uptick. Is that how we should think about your guidance or am I missing something here in the middle?

當我看著我的模型時，我問這個問題的原因是因為我正在看著我的模型。因此，我需要接近 29% 的數字，甚至可以稱之為 27% 或 28%，這意味著 12 月季度的環比增長相當顯著，在 30% 到 40% 的環比增長附近。這是我們應該如何考慮你的指導還是我在中間遺漏了一些東西？

I think something may be missing in that because it's not that type of a volume increase in the fourth quarter. Last year, included a high mix of specialty industrial IC. So that impacted revenue, but not the unit volume. So you have to make sure that you'd normalized for that. And then if the commentary we've made throughout this year on unit volume growth, you could roughly estimate what we are thinking for Q4 unit volumes.

我認為其中可能缺少一些東西，因為第四季度的銷售成長並不是這種類型。去年，包括了多種特種工業 IC。因此，這影響了收入，但不影響單位銷售。所以你必須確保你已經對此進行了正常化。然後，如果我們今年全年對單位銷售成長做出的評論，您可以粗略估計我們對第四季度單位銷售的想法。

I'll add. Cary's point is spot on about specialty. But the one point I want to add is that the fact that we're able to deliver growth in unit volumes in a significantly down market. What gives us significant confidence in our long-term opportunity, we're driving massive improvements at enterprise end users in terms of them being able to track and we're adding the manufacturing, transport and so. And even in a down market, we still see growth in that opportunity. We see our large North market supply channel logistics end user continuing to press forward because of the value proposition that RAIN RFID brings, which is why we're bullish on the long-term future. It's unfortunate we have to go through the pain of this current downturn. We're down with the retail market overall, but we remain excited about our long-term opportunity.

我補充一下。卡里關於專業的觀點是正確的。但我想補充的一點是，我們能夠在大幅下滑的市場中實現單位銷售的成長。是什麼讓我們對我們的長期機會充滿信心，我們正在推動企業最終用戶在能夠追蹤方面進行大規模改進，並且我們正在增加製造、運輸等。即使在低迷的市場中，我們仍然看到這個機會的成長。我們看到，由於 RAIN RFID 帶來的價值主張，我們大型北方市場供應通路物流最終用戶繼續向前推進，這就是我們看好長期未來的原因。不幸的是，我們必須經歷當前經濟低迷的痛苦。我們的零售市場整體下滑，但我們仍然對我們的長期機會感到興奮。

Understood, guys. That wasn't what I had pressed the button for to ask, but I thought the question was interesting, so I jumped on it. But I know you don't want to talk about 2024, but you are citing sort of things, green shoots and you are citing some numbers for the industry unit volume of -- or your unit volume of 20, call it, high 20s. Maybe you could help us think about how we should think about 2024 as a year that's coming off the bottom, would you expect yourself to do better than the industry numbers in 2024 as everything rebounds? Would the growth rate be in excess? And then what's a good growth rate?

明白了，夥計們。這不是我按下按鈕要問的，但我覺得這個問題很有趣，所以我就直接問了。但我知道你不想談論 2024 年，但你引用了一些事情，例如萌芽，你引用了一些行業單位數量的數字——或者你的單位數量 20，稱之為高 20 多歲。也許你可以幫助我們思考一下，我們應該如何看待 2024 年，作為走出谷底的一年，隨著一切的反彈，你是否期望自己在 2024 年會比行業數據做得更好？成長率會不會超額？那什麼是好的成長率呢？

No, but in all seriousness, we're just coming through a very difficult environment where we said in our prepared remarks, it's too early to call a bottom. We feel green shoots -- we really can't estimate the pace of that turnaround. It depends on factors that are so much larger than us, macro factors in terms of retail, in terms of spend, in terms of the government spend. There's just too many variables in there. What I believe we can say is that we see unit volume CAGR growth in a difficult market this year, and we fully anticipate there will be significant unit volume growth next year. Magnitude of it, exactly what it turns out to be, exactly where it's going to be and everything. It's far too early for us to predict. But our industry has grown year-over-year every year since 2010 in terms of unit volumes, and we have no doubt that 2024 will follow the similar trend. I just can't peg where it's going to be.

不，但嚴肅地說，我們剛剛經歷了一個非常困難的環境，我們在準備好的演講中表示，現在說觸底還為時過早。我們感覺到了曙光——我們真的無法估計這種轉變的速度。這取決於比我們大得多的因素，零售方面、支出方面、政府支出方面的宏觀因素。這裡面的變數實在太多了。我相信我們可以說的是，我們在今年困難的市場中看到了單位銷售複合年增長率的增長，並且我們完全預計明年單位銷售將出現顯著增長。它的重要性，它最終的結果，它將會在哪裡以及一切。我們現在預測還為時過早。但自 2010 年以來，我們行業的單位數量每年都在逐年增長，我們毫不懷疑 2024 年將遵循類似的趨勢。我只是無法確定它會在哪裡。

The next question comes from Natalia Winkler with Jefferies.

下一個問題來自傑弗里斯的納塔利婭·溫克勒 (Natalia Winkler)。

So the first one was just on the logistics end market, right? It sounds like given the retail is kind of weak, this is where we see a lot of [disappointment]. So could you guys speak about the opportunities beyond this project that you're seeing ramping right now? How is your engagement with maybe some of the other potential customers there? And what is -- like at which point of this current ramp do you think you will see sort of any potential further inflection in demand in that logistics end market?

那麼第一個只是在物流終端市場，對嗎？聽起來零售業有點疲軟，這就是我們看到很多[失望]的地方。那麼你們能談談你們現在看到的這個項目之外的機會嗎？您與其他一些潛在客戶的互動情況如何？您認為在當前成長的哪個點上，您會看到物流終端市場的需求出現任何潛在的進一步變化？

Natalie (sic) [Natalia], this is Jeff. I think I'd first reiterate what we've said often, which is the pace and timing of new enterprise deployments is very hard to predict. But what I will say is that the supply chain and logistics industry is engaged and closely monitoring what others in the industry are doing that would impact their competitive opportunity in the same marketplace. So I'm encouraged by the level of engagement that we have with other supply chain and logistics organizations that are considering how Impinj platform and RAIN RFID can help them improve their competitiveness in a difficult market.

娜塔莉（原文如此）[娜塔莉亞]，這是傑夫。我想我首先要重申我們經常說的話，即新企業部署的速度和時間很難預測。但我要說的是，供應鏈和物流行業正在參與並密切關注該行業其他人正在做的事情，這將影響他們在同一市場中的競爭機會。因此，我對我們與其他供應鏈和物流組織的合作程度感到鼓舞，這些組織正在考慮 Impinj 平台和 RAIN RFID 如何幫助他們提高在困難市場的競爭力。

Natalie, this is Chris. I'm going to add one -- Or Natalia, I'm sorry. This is Chris. I'm going to add one thing. If you look at our industry's history, it's generally been the case that one or a small number of end users have caused the segment to go. So if I look at retail opportunity, it was Macy's and Marks & Spencer and Decathlon back in the early days. If I look at aviation, it's led by Delta Air Lines and then KLM-Air France joined in and then [all member airlines would follow suit]. Now of course, that's been stalled by the setback that we had during COVID time. It was the same in the automotive space with a small number of automotive companies like, for example, by Volkswagen to drive forward.

娜塔莉，這是克里斯。我要加一個——或者娜塔莉亞，對不起。這是克里斯。我要補充一件事。如果你看看我們行業的歷史，通常情況是一個或少數最終用戶導致了該細分市場的消失。因此，如果我看看零售機會，早期的就是梅西百貨、瑪莎百貨和迪卡儂。如果我看看航空業，它是由達美航空領導的，然後是荷蘭皇家航空-法國航空加入，然後[所有成員航空公司都會效仿]。當然，現在由於我們在新冠疫情期間遇到的挫折而陷入停滯。在汽車領域也是如此，有少數汽車公司（例如大眾汽車）在推動。

And so our industry tends to get pulled when a giant end user decides to adopt and basically proves the use case. And so while I can't guarantee that's what's going to happen here again. To Jeff's comments, others are watching closely and are engaging. And so we're doing everything we can to make this first opportunity successful and then to pursue everything else we can in the supply chain and logistics space.

因此，當一個巨大的最終用戶決定採用並基本上證明了用例時，我們的行業往往會受到拉動。因此，雖然我不能保證這裡會再次發生這種情況。對於傑夫的評論，其他人正在密切關注並參與其中。因此，我們正在盡一切努力使這第一個機會成功，然後在供應鏈和物流領域尋求我們所能做的一切。

And then the second one, could you guys provide an update on the Voyantic acquisition, like how has that been? And how are you seeing maybe any kind of integration or revenue potential there?

第二個問題，你們能否提供有關 Voyantic 收購的最新情況，例如收購情況如何？您如何看待那裡的任何類型的整合或收入潛力？

So the Voyantic integration from both my perspective, and I spent time last week with Jukka, the Voyantic CEO. The integration is going well. Teams are working well together. We started with the financial integration, HR integration, IT integration, just because Voyantic was running just fine before we acquired them. And as we go forward, we are going to be significantly focused on improving the quality, reliability and performance of labels in the market, easing the design process and helping ensure to -- enterprise end users that the labels that they deploy with the ICs that are in them and the hope set of the deployment is sufficiently reliable for them to base their business on it.

因此，從我和我上週與 Voyantic 執行長 Jukka 的角度來看，Voyantic 的整合。整合進展順利。團隊合作良好。我們從財務整合、人力資源整合、IT 整合開始，只是因為 Voyantic 在我們收購它們之前運作得很好。隨著我們的前進，我們將重點關注提高市場上標籤的品質、可靠性和性能，簡化設計流程，並幫助確保企業最終用戶他們使用 IC 部署的標籤位於他們之中，並且部署的希望集足夠可靠，可以讓他們以此為基礎開展業務。

And so we have very high hopes for the future, a close integration between the teams to drive enterprise adoption and our solutions focused as a company by adding that quality, reliability, manufacturability and performance to the equation that we already were bringing to bear, which is the endpoint ICs, the reader ICs, the readers, gateways and the software. So it's just a piece of the puzzle that we think makes a stronger whole solution.

因此，我們對未來抱有很高的期望，透過將品質、可靠性、可製造性和性能添加到我們已經實現的等式中，推動企業採用的團隊與我們專注於公司的解決方案之間的緊密整合，這是端點 IC、讀卡機 IC、讀卡機、網關和軟體。因此，我們認為這只是拼圖中的一小部分，可以構成更強大的整體解決方案。

And Natalia, this is Cary. In addition to the strategic benefits that Chris just outlined from a financial perspective, it's gross margin accretive, it's operating margin accretive, it's checking all the boxes for us.

娜塔莉亞，這是卡里。除了克里斯剛剛從財務角度概述的戰略利益之外，它還增加了毛利率，增加了營業利潤，為我們勾選了所有選項。

They are a good team.

他們是一支優秀的團隊。

Next question is a follow-up from Scott Searle with ROTH MKM.

下一個問題是 Scott Searle 和 ROTH MKM 的後續問題。

Just a quick follow up on Harsh's question on the system side. Chris, this business, [it tended] to be a little bit lumpy and depending on where customers are, it's kind of been a little erratic sometimes from quarter-to-quarter. But the general direction seems like it continues to build. I was wondering if you could give us some metrics or help us frame a little bit how big the opportunity is today, how does that pipeline look like on the project and the systems front versus maybe where we were at the start of the year or 12 months ago?

只是對系統方面 Harsh 的問題進行快速跟進。克里斯，這項業務[它往往]有點不穩定，並且根據客戶所在的位置，有時每個季度都有點不穩定。但整體方向似乎仍在繼續發展。我想知道您是否可以給我們一些指標或幫助我們了解今天的機會有多大，該管道在專案和系統方面與我們年初或 12 年初的情況相比如何幾個月前？

Yes. I'm going to start that with an overall strategic perspective, and then I'll hand off to Jeff in terms of just any comment you want to say on the pipeline, but I'd like to start kind of with where we are strategically.

是的。我將從整體戰略角度開始，然後我會將您想說的任何評論轉交給傑夫，但我想從我們的戰略位置開始。

We, as a company, are focused on enterprise solutions, enabling enterprise end users the likes of our large North American supply chain and logistics end users to successfully deploy a solution that completely delights them and our customers. And so our systems business is really the tip of the spear that gets us into those accounts, helps us invent solutions to hard business problems, as I said in my prepared remarks, and drive that use case, drive the solution to that problem, which drives the use case. And then flow our learnings down to our reader ICs over time, such that we can enable broad market adoption of that particular solution and use case and then step on to the next one.

作為一家公司，我們專注於企業解決方案，使企業最終用戶（例如我們大型北美供應鏈和物流最終用戶）能夠成功部署完全令他們和我們的客戶滿意的解決方案。因此，我們的系統業務實際上是讓我們進入這些帳戶的矛尖，幫助我們發明解決困難業務問題的解決方案，正如我在準備好的發言中所說，並推動該用例，推動該問題的解決方案，這驅動用例。然後隨著時間的推移，我們的學習成果會流向我們的讀卡機 IC，以便我們可以使該特定解決方案和用例得到廣泛的市場採用，然後繼續下一個解決方案和用例。

So as you think about what we're doing with readers and gateways, the focus is on enterprise solutions. We typically don't give that pipeline numbers in terms of where we are and things like that. But I'll let Jeff say maybe a few words on kind of the overall systems business and opportunity.

因此，當您考慮我們在閱讀器和網關方面所做的事情時，重點是企業解決方案。我們通常不會根據我們所處的位置和類似情況來給出管道數量。但我會讓傑夫就整體系統業務和機會說幾句話。

Yes. Thanks, Chris. I'd start with that our systems pipeline remain strong. To Chris' point, our strategy of engaging with visionary lighthouse enterprises to solve previously unsolved problems is reflected increasingly in our systems pipeline, that is the proportion of our overall pipeline that is represented by these large enterprise engagement opportunities is increasing. It is strong.

是的。謝謝，克里斯。我首先要說的是，我們的系統管道仍然強大。在克里斯看來，我們與有遠見的燈塔企業合作解決以前未解決的問題的策略越來越多地反映在我們的系統管道中，也就是說，這些大型企業參與機會所代表的我們整體管道的比例正在增加。它很強大。

I would say that the broader pipeline -- broader reader and gateway channel pipeline reflects some of the impact of the macroeconomic that is it is not growing currently at the same rate as the large enterprise engagements in our pipeline. I think -- can't predict when, but I think sometime in 2024 when overall macroeconomic conditions improve, we'll see a return to the growth in the broader channel partner-led reader and gateway pipeline.

我想說的是，更廣泛的管道——更廣泛的讀者和網關管道管道反映了宏觀經濟的一些影響，即它目前的成長速度與我們管道中的大型企業參與的速度不同。我認為——無法預測具體時間，但我認為在 2024 年整體宏觀經濟狀況改善時，我們將看到更廣泛的通路合作夥伴主導的閱讀器和網關管道恢復成長。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Co-Founder and CEO, Chris Diorio for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回給聯合創始人兼執行長 Chris Diorio 發表閉幕詞。

Thank you, MJ. I'd like to thank you all for joining the call today. I hope you and your loved ones are and remain safe and well, and thank you for joining our call. Bye-bye.

謝謝你，喬丹。我要感謝大家今天加入電話會議。我希望您和您所愛的人保持安全和健康，並感謝您加入我們的通話。再見。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連線。