Lesswire was spun-off of the Leibniz Institute in 1999 and became a part of the Prettl Group in 2006 as a 100% daughter company of Prettl Electronics GmbH in Radeberg, Germany a major German EMS provider. Lesswire in headquartered in Berlin, has a subsidiary in Èrd, Hungary and employs approximately 20 people in total out of which the majority are engineers, software developers and project managers. The company is IATF certified and has been serving the European automotive industry (OEMs and Tier1) for over 20 years.
What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Lesswire is active in developing and manufacturing customized connectivity hardware solutions. We provide one-stop-shop services to clients seeking application specific hardware solutions. From consulting clients during the early conceptual stages of determining suitable communication and transmission technologies to creating professional requirements specifications, designing, developing and realizing respective hardware all the way to manufacturing and delivering such products.
Products are gateway solutions that collect data from sensors and control units and transmit that data to backend cloud applications, both by means of wired as well as wireless interfaces. Typically, our focus is on infotainment gateways (such as routers), telematics gateways and applications gateways, often for vehicles and mobile assets of all sorts. Our products act as enablers of applications-based services such as WiFi hotspots in coaches, remote monitoring & controlling access points, preventive maintenance or fleet management services.
What’s the news about new products/services?
Our latest client offering is a development platform called “lessySTAR” which offers the opportunity for more rapid development projects with the purpose of minimizing time-to-market and non-recurring engineering cost (NRE) thus reducing project and business risk.
Additionally, we offer a white-label, off-the-shelf application gateway solution that allows professional software application such as fleet management or logistics apps, which are currently used on smartphones or additional mobile devices such as display, to be displayed and operated on the head unit of the vehicle via USB and AndroidAuto. This significantly reduces hardware cost (no additional displays to be integrated into the cockpit of the vehicle) as well as makes driver operations safer. Further due to the integration of the gateway into the vehicle, all communication via the device is vehicle-related, not driver-related which ensures reliable communication no matter who the driver is and what his personal means of communication are (i.e. availability of adequate communication devices).
What are the ranges of products/services?
We offer consulting, development, certification & qualification as well as industrialization and manufacturing services for electronics hardware.
Further, we complement client development teams with our expertise, resources and our professional network to boost client development projects in terms of time-to-market or non-recurring engineering cost (NRE).
What is the state of the market where you are currently active?
We are focusing on the “special vehicles” and mobile assets market segments such as recreational vehicles (snowmobiles, quads, motorbikes, jetskis etc.), logistics/off-road/heavy-duty vehicles and construction equipment since these low to mid-volume markets create perfect opportunities for specialized SME companies such as lesswire.
What can you tell us about market trends?
Digitalization as well as and often in conjunction with electrification is a mega trend in almost all industries but particularly in the automotive industry. Everything and anything is being connected in the context of the internet of things in order to enable new service-related business models. Standardization is only in its early stage, particularly in non-passenger-car markets, so many applications with their very specific technical and commercial requirements seek customized solutions.
What estimations do you have for the rest of 2024?
2024 has been challenging due to global events both politically as well as economically affecting the entire German/European industry including, of course, our partners and clients. The general trend of digitalization, however, is and will remain to be strong, generating significant growth opportunities for years to come. We expect kick-off of several new projects in 2025ff and a continuation of the trend to further upgrade hardware performance due to a continuously increasing appetite for more data and hence look forward to continuing the +20 success story of lesswire. Always remember, there is no software business model without the enabling hardware providing the data.