Elan Microelectronics Corp (義隆電子), which supplies touch-panel controller chips for Google Inc’s Nexus 7 tablets, said revenue hit a record high last month, bringing last quarter’s revenue to the highest level in company history.
The Hsinchu-based company expected revenue to increase further later this year, helped by a constant increase in shipping of capacitive touch-panel chips with Microsoft Corp’s Windows 8 certifications to the world’s top six PC brands, Elan said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday.
Revenue grew 15 percent month-on-month and 66 percent year-on-year to NT$718 million (US$24.5 million). In the three-month period ending Sept. 30, revenue expanded 7.4 percent to NT$2.03 billion, from the second quarter’s NT$1.89 billion.
Elan attributed the revenue expansion to “significant growth in shipment of touch screen chips” last month.
The company also said shipments of touch-pad chips used in notebook computers rose to a historic high last month.
“The results of those two touch-related products have exceeded our expectation, making the touch-related products’ revenue share hit a historic high of 69.9 percent in September,” Elan said.
Last quarter, Elan shipped more than 3 million units of capacitive touch-screen chips for PCs and tablets, it said.
That matched company chairman and president Yeh I-hau’s (葉儀皓) forecast that shipments of touch-panel chips used in tablets would grow 76 percent quarter-on-quarter to 3 million units, with 1.3 million units going to Nexus 7 tablets.
In addition, Elan said shipments of touch-screen chips for notebooks supporting Windows 8 had reached 400,000 units a month.
Shares in Elan dropped 3.15 percent to NT$52.2 on Tuesday, before the data were released. Taiwan’s stock market was closed for a public holiday yesterday.
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