MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation's largest mobile phone chipmaker, overtook Trident Microsystems Inc as the world's top supplier of chips used in digital televisions after landing orders from the world's biggest LCD TV maker, Samsung Electronics Co, researcher DisplaySearch said in a report yesterday.
The change in ranking also indicated that the growing power of original design manufacturers (ODMs) is shaping the TV industry, said Paul Gray, director of European TV Research at DisplaySearch, in the report.
Growing demand from local LCD TV makers including Amtran Technology Co Ltd (瑞軒), which supplies TVs under the popular Vizio brand in the US, and Proview Electronics Co (唯冠) also helped MediaTek boost its market share, the Austin, Texas-based research house said.
Market share of MediaTek jumped to 19.5 percent by shipments in the first quarter, up 12 percent from a year ago and 18.9 percent in the final quarter of last year, DisplaySearch said.
Trident trailed behind MediaTek with 15.7 percent market share.
“Winning new orders from Samsung is the main reason behind MediaTek’s improvement in ranking,” DisplaySearch analyst David Hsieh (謝勤益) said by telephone.
Samsung is the world’s biggest liquid-crystal-display (LCD) TV maker.
MediaTak generated revenues mostly from handset chips, with around 10 percent coming from TV chips last year, following the company’s diversification into the new business in recent years.
MediaTek more than doubled its TV chip shipments to 5.2 million in the first months from 2.48 million chips a year ago, DisplaySearch said.
Overall, digital TV chipmakers shipped a total of 26.68 million units in the first quarter, up 26 percent from a year earlier, or down 6.4 percent from a quarter earlier because of seasonal factors, the researcher said.
TV chip prices are expected to fall further amid stiff competition this year, Hsieh said.
Overall sales of TV chips would likely remain flat this year compared to last year, at around US$1.3 billion, he said.
“That will pose a great challenge for TV chipmakers to retain profit margin,” Hsieh said.
The stock price of MediaTek jumped 4.39 percent to NT$333, outperforming the benchmark TAIEX index, which gained 1.51 percent yesterday.
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