MediaTek Inc (聯發科), one of the world’s largest handset chip designers, yesterday reported that revenue last quarter declined 5.1 percent quarter-on-quarter, hitting the low end of the range estimated by the company.
During the fourth quarter of last year, revenue fell to NT$60.4 billion (US$2.05 billion), after revenue last month shrank 10 percent month-on-month, the lowest in seven months.
The chipmaker originally projected fourth-quarter revenue to fall between NT$59.2 billion and NT$64.3 billion, a range of a 7 percent reduction to a 1 percent increase, compared with the company’s revenue of NT$63.65 billion in the third quarter of last year.
Two months ago, MediaTek attributed its anemic estimates to a product transition period for its mobile chips and soft demand during the slow fourth quarter for chips used in consumer electronics such as TVs.
As hinted by the chip designer, last quarter’s growth might have been driven by a major shift in its mobile processor lineups, in which it increased its offering of medium and low-end mobile processors with the ultimate goal of recouping its market share and saving its gross margin from a downward spiral.
MediaTek’s whole-year revenue sank 13.54 percent to NT$238.216 billion, compared with NT$275.512 billion in 2016.
Processors used in mobile phones and tablets are the biggest sources of revenue, making up about 35 to 40 percent of the company’s revenue.
MediaTek co-CEO Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told reporters last month that the company’s mobile chip business has stabilized as reflected in the uptrend of the firm’s gross margin, thanks to an increase in customer orders for its new Helio P series of processors.
Product diversification, rather than just mobile chips, is to support the company’s medium to long-term growth, Tsai said.
MediaTek expects double-digit growth for its processors used in “smart” speakers, Internet-of-Things applications, as well as power management integrated circuits (ICs) and application-specific integrated circuit chips (ASICs) within the next one to two years.
The processors could account for 30 percent of the company’s revenue, the chipmaker said.
MediaTek is the biggest supplier of chips used in “smart” speakers with a market share of about 70 percent. The company expects global shipments of “smart” speakers to increase from 30 million units last year to more than 50 million this year, driven by rising demand from China, said Jerry Yu (游人傑), general manager of MediaTek’s entertainment business group.
Chips used in “smart” speakers contribute less than 5 percent to the company’s revenue, Yu said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”