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NXP to introduce low-cost chips at Computex show

NXP Semiconductors, formerly a semiconductor unit of Royal Philips NV, said yesterday it will showcase its latest low-cost handset chips during the annual computer trade show in Taipei, targeting fast-growing emerging markets such as China and India.

This could represent a major breakthrough for NXP in offering competitively priced chips for entry-level phones following its acquisition of Silicon Labs' cellular phone unit in February, which will provide the Eindhoven, Netherlands-based company single-chip capability.

lower costs

"The ultra low-cost chips for mobile devices will save us 50 percent in costs by reducing parts and shrinking chip size, compared to the chips we made previously," NXP marketing manager Edward Han (韓德明) told a press briefing in Taipei yesterday.

Han declined to comment on how much NXP will bring down the price of its new chips. He only said that the prices "will be very competitive."

Low-cost chips for mobile phones will be among the major products showcased in this year's Computex trade show, the world's second-biggest computer show, which starts on Monday and ends June 9 in Taipei.

main targets

Joining bigger rivals such as Texas Instruments Inc, the world's top mobile phone chipmaker, in boosting their presence in emerging markets to seek new growth, NXP said "these new chips are targeting China, India and other developing [countries]."

China, the world's second-biggest mobile phone semiconductor market after the US, is expected to consume US$3.45 billion worth of handset chips this year.

This is up slightly from last year, market researcher International Data Corp said, without providing detailed comparative figures.

more china

NXP will be competing for a bigger slice of the Chinese market with Texas Instruments and Taiwan's MediaTek Inc (聯發科), which supplies chips to most Chinese cellular phone vendors. Texas Instruments and MediaTek together hold 50 percent of the Chinese market.

"Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean customers are using our solutions in designing new products. We expect them to begin shipping products using our chips in the first quarter of next year," Han said.

Mobile device-related products were NXP's biggest sales last year, whose revenues were 5 billion euros (US$6.7 billion), up from 4.77 billion euros in 2005.

Twenty-two percent of its revenues last year came from China.

In addition to chips for mobile phones, NXP will display a wide range of new products at the computer trade show, including wireless solutions for digital photo frames as well as new set-top boxes allowing customers to watch and record high-definition digital TV programs simultaneously.
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