MediaTek to roll out DVD recorder chips

MediaTek Inc (聯發科技), the world's largest maker of chips for DVD players, will introduce its first chips for DVD recorders in the second half of this year after missing a target for the end of last year, a spokesman said.

MediaTek also plans to sell its first chips for mobile phones by the middle of this year, company spokesman Yu Ming-to (喻銘鐸) said, following the company's annual shareholders' meeting last Friday. He declined to provide more details on the schedules for new chips.

MediaTek may also be slipping in its plans to introduce the chips for mobile phones, analysts said. The company needs new products to sustain profit growth, which has slowed since the first quarter of last year, when net income quadrupled after consumers spent more on home entertainment products such as DVD players following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the US.

"There won't be any contribution to MediaTek's sales from new chips until 2004," said Benny Lo (盧志恆), an analyst at Primasia Securities Co. MediaTek's growth in profit this year will slide to 11 percent from more than 82 percent last year, he said.

MediaTek shares fell NT$1, or 0.3 percent, to NT$287. They have dropped a quarter in the past year.

MediaTek sells chips for DVD players to customers in China and South Korea, including Sichuan Changhong Electric Co (四川長虹電器), China's biggest television maker.