Data I/O Corporation (NASDAQ:DAIO) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Anthony Ambrose: I think we’re in the early stages of traceability. I think this is a capability that will become increasingly important in automotive. You can think about a use case where €“ if you have a problem, right, the standard recourse in automotive is a recall. And that’s a very blunt instrument. So if you think about a situation we’re saying, what if you have the capability to isolate a problem to a particular batch of firmware or a particular factory or particular operator or shift with traceability data that’s created at run time as you program parts, you could potentially save a lot of money by having a very straightforward recall and fix as opposed to having a much larger one. That’s just one-use case. I think we’re in the early stages of that concept for traceability, but it plays very well with some of the technologies we’ve developed like SentriX, ConneX and our family of platforms for programming.

Unidentified Analyst: And if I may, just one last quick one. So what would be the other reasons electronics manufacturers would choose your solutions?

Anthony Ambrose: I think we’ve touched on it earlier in maybe my prepared remarks, but really it’s the global support, the platform capability that I mentioned. If you have one electronics image you want to run in multiple plants worldwide, you need to have a consistent platform available to your plants in Europe, Mexico, China, the U.S., Southeast Asia, etcetera. And that’s what we offer with our PSV platform, support, the platform capability, the financial stability, the resilient supply chain, all the things we talk about.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question is from Chris Wachowski, a Private Investor. Please go ahead.

Chris Wachowski: Hello. Congratulations on great results.

Anthony Ambrose: Thank you.

Joel Hatlen: Thank you.

Chris Wachowski: So the slight drop in bookings from Q3 to Q4, is that something seasonal? Or is it just a result of the Q3 bookings being higher because of makeup from the previous COVID disruptions?

Anthony Ambrose: I think that’s a good question. The way we look at Q4 was our highest bookings in the fourth quarter in 4 years, and so we thought it was pretty good. There usually is some seasonality in our business. As I mentioned before on other earnings calls, the slowest period of the year is between Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. and Lunar New Year in China, which crosses Q4 and Q1 from a bookings perspective. So that’s €“ having the bookings we had in Q4 was something we thought was a good result.

Chris Wachowski: Okay. That’s good to hear that it’s seasonal. And about China, there is very conflicting news about China, about whether electric car production is actually maybe reducing, prices going down. Is that affecting the capital equipment market negatively?

Anthony Ambrose: Well, if we saw electric vehicle prices going down, I would assume that there is some positive response to demand on that overall. The Chinese market has been, I think, very eager to adopt electric vehicles. We have a number of wins in China for supporting electric vehicles. But I think EVs are a phenomenon worldwide. We will see the demand figures bounce around a little bit, but we had a good year in China last year in automotive, and we’re looking forward to another good year this year.

Operator: Thank you. And the next question will be from Matt Winthrop from Equitable. Please go ahead.

Matt Winthrop: Good afternoon, gentlemen. I’m a retail broker, and Mr. Darrow, your IR guy got in touch with me. I think he’s doing a great job for you just for what it’s worth. Congratulations, it looks like you guys had a good quarter. I attended a conference or I heard you speak once and you talked about AI months ago before the recent pop. I’m just wondering if there is a niche there that you’re filling.