Outlook.OUTLOOK
Although COVID-19 is continuing to have an impact on our financial results in the first quarter of 2021, which we expect will result in a comparable quarter to the fourth quarter of 2020, we nevertheless remain optimistic that financial results will improve in 2021. The outlook for the Wireless Infrastructure business line for 2021 has improved significantly for several reasons:
1) Completion of the 5G spectrum auction in December 2020, which will spur new investments across our carrier partners;
2) Several projects delayed in 2020 are now scheduled for 2021;
3) New carrier supplier status wins for small cells for which revenue is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2021; and,
4) BSA wins with a tier one North American carrier. The outlook for the Asia Pacific business line for 2021 has also improved due to pent up demand across numerous consumer segments resulting from the COVID-19 lockdowns in North America and Europe in 2020. Furthermore, Asia Pacific has secured additional key model wins with its key customers and likewise has aggressively pushed into other product segments such as wearables, tablets and laptops. The Embedded Antenna business line is expected to continue to perform well in 2021 with gross margin expected to improve in the first quarter of 2021 due to a capital investment which will automate a portion of the manufacturing process of one of its highest volume products. The increase in consumer demand for Wi-Fi 6 products, coupled with recent large platform wins in this market, have this business expecting growth for 2021. Furthermore, we have moved into the automotive antenna market, resulting in two long-term automotive contracts that are expected to start in mid2021. The Satcom business line has seen a significant increase in military proposals and contract wins to new and existing customers for large opportunities that are expected to commence shipments in early 2021. The launch of our new Summit Series II solid state power amplifier has achieved early success with a key customer win, and our first system is on track to be delivered in the first quarter of 2021, with other awards expected to be delivered soon afterwards. We believe that there is no other platform in the market that can deliver the capabilities of our Summit Series II and that it will open up mu