VIA Telecom Inc (威睿電通), a handset chip designing arm of PC chip designer VIA Technologies Inc (威盛電子), yesterday said shipments could grow 50 percent next year, riding on the faster uptake of third-generation (3G) services in China.
VIA Telecom is expected to grow with its Chinese partner, China Telecommunications Corp (China Telecom, 中國電信), which is looking to buy between 50 million and 80 million cellphones for subscribers next year, VIA Telecom chief executive Chang Ker (張可) told reporters in Taipei.
In May, VIA Telecom inked a memorandum of understanding with China Telecom to supply China’s 3G operator with handset chips and netbook computers equipped with VIA Technologies processors and chipsets.
“We expect to see a new wave of migration from 2G to 3G next year after more applications hit the market ... China’s remote areas will be the main growth spots,” Chang said.
To expand its customer base, China Telecom may offer more low-cost mobile phones priced at around 200 yuan (US$30) per unit, Chang said.
Fueled by the growth momentum, VIA Telecom expects to increase its shipment by 50 percent next year, Chang said.
He declined to give specific shipment numbers.
The Beijing-based handset chip designer shipped 30 million chips in the first half of the year. Sales in China accounted for about 70 percent of its revenues, he said.
VIA Telecom also supplies handset chips to Samsung Electronics Co, LG Electronics Inc, Nokia Corp and Taiwan’s Inventec Appliances Corp (英華達), which is a handset manufacturing arm of Inventec Corp (英業達).
Earlier this year, China Telecom started offering 3G services to its customers using code division multiple access (CDMA) technology. CDMA is a rival standard to the dominant cellular standard GSM, or global system for mobile. VIA Telecom and the US’ Qualcomm Inc are the two major CDMA handset chip suppliers.
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the biggest handset chip supplier in China, may move into CDMA handset chips before the end of the year after wrapping up licensing talks with Qualcomm, the Hsinchu-based company said.
Laying out its blueprint for next year, VIA Telecom plans to put more resources into developing new chips enabling high-speed data transmission on new-generation technologies chips for 3.5G and 4G (also known as Long Term Evolution) technologies, Chang said.
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