Macronix General Manager Chih-Yuan Lu in a press conference following an investor conference responded to a reporter's question stating that although a settlement had been reached with Spansion, this does not mean that seeking out "settlements" will be Macronix's consistent stance. If opponents invade Macronix's doorstep, it will actively respond and not take it lying down.

"Showing weakness makes everyone consider you to be easily dominated," Chih-Yuan Lu said.

Taking the settlement with Spansion as an example, Macronix had already struggled with them for many years and had never given any ground. Finally, they reached a mutually beneficial settlement. On the other hand, in the litigation between Samsung and Spansion, Samsung chose to pay huge reparations.

"We are a fierce small company," said Chih-Yuan Lu.

Nevertheless, this settlement agreement may have come too late. Because of last year's fierce litigation process, Macronix paid a total of more than NT $ 1 billion in legal fees, which was like salt in a wound following its already meager profits. Macronix's combined profits for last year totaled NT $ 22.414 billion; however, its net losses totaled NT $ 6.461 billion, which was a 2% increase from the previous year Its losses per share was NT $ 1.84.

However, after the legal dispute has subsided, it is better late than never for Macronix to consider adding more horsepower to compete for the imminent takeoff of the IoT and wearable devices market. It will first launch 36nm low-volume (1GB, 2GB, and 8GB) NAND Flash to satisfy an extremely specialized applications market.

Chih-Yuan Lu stated that they avoid direct competition with large corporations and have chosen a niche market. For wearable applications, engineering samples (ES) have already been supplied to many well-known large companies around the world, and they also have one hundred twenty-six "Design in" plans in progress.

Looking into the future in 2015, Chih-Yuan Lu holds Macronix's small capacity NAND Flash development in high regards, especially for IoT / Wearable devices, wireless applications, and automotive electronics and industrial applications.

Laughing, Chih-Yuan Lu stated that "Marconix's NAND Flash era has arrived."

(TR:Phil Sweeney)