Despite a small 3.56 percent decline in revenue last month, MediaTek Inc (聯發科) looks on track to meet its revenue target for this quarter.
Revenue fell to NT$12.75 billion (US$426.4 million) last month from a record-high of NT$13.22 billion in July, the nation’s top handset chip supplier said in a statement.
With July and last month’s sales reaching NT$25.97 billion, the chipmaker looks set to meet its quarterly revenue target of NT$34.9 billion. Over the past five years, MediaTek’s September revenue grew an average of 2.15 percent from August.
“We expect MediaTek to surpass the upper end of its revenue guidance of NT$37.6 billion and gross margin of 44 percent, versus our current aggressive forecasts of NT$37.9 billion [in revenue and] 44.4 percent [in gross margin], which are already ahead of consensus,” Kim Eng Securities analyst Warren Lau (劉華仁) said in a report.
Lau attributed the growth to strong demand for MediaTek’s smartphone chips used in low-end models.
MediaTek yesterday said Alcatel has adopted its quad-core M6589 processor for its flagship smartphone, which is marketed by TCL Communication Technology (TCL通訊) in China.
Company president Hsieh Ching-jiang (謝清江) told investors early this month that rising demand for chips used in smartphones and tablets in China would boost its sales by 5 to 13 percent from NT$33.28 billion last quarter.
Hsieh expected shipments of smartphone chips to expand 18 percent to as high as 65 million units this quarter from 55 billion units last quarter. Smartphone chips are Mediatek’s biggest revenue source, accounting for more than half of its revenue.
The company also hopes that the hiring of former Qualcomm executive Kristin Taylor, who joined the company on Tuesday, could help it further expand market share. Taylor had worked for Qualcomm Inc for 15 years, MediaTek said.
“Hiring Qualcomm executives may increase the odds for MediaTek to penetrate Samsung’s hold on the low to mid-end smartphone market,” Lau said.
Samsung is expected to ship 200 million low to mid-range smartphones this year, Lau said.
“A 20 percent penetration rate could amount to 40 million units, a significant driver for MediaTek,” he said.
Separately, Macronix International Co Ltd (旺宏電子), which mainly supplies Japanese video game console maker Nintendo Co, yesterday posted its strongest revenue in 10 months at NT$2.53 billion last month.
That represented a 39.9 percent increase from NT$1.81 billion in July and 19.3 percent from NT$2.12 billion a year ago, the company said in a statement.
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