MediaTek Inc (聯發科) shares rallied 1.29 percent yesterday after the nation’s biggest handset chip designer unveiled a super-low-cost handset chip in a bid to secure its market share.
MediaTek commands about 70 percent of China’s handset chip market and it hopes to safeguard this position, the company said.
MediaTek also hinted that it would not rule out cutting prices to fend off competition from competitors such as MStar Semiconductor Inc (Cayman) (開曼晨星半導體) and Shanghai-based Spreadtrum Communications Co (展訊通信).
The MT6252D chip — a new version of the popular MT6252 chip used in 2G mobile phones — boasts the world’s first memory-less single chip for mobile phones, which can help chip designers save on costs and time to market, the Hsinchu-based company said in a statement posted on its Web site on Monday.
“The MT6252D will help customers provide excellent audio and visual performance at a very low cost. The chip will also allow customers to differentiate their products,” MediaTek said in the statement.
Company president Hsieh Ching-jiang (謝清江) told investors on April 29 that shipments of the MT6252, which hit the market in March, would account for more than 30 percent of the company’s overall shipments next quarter.
MediaTek said that revenues this quarter were expected to expand by between 5 and 12 percent to NT$20.9 billion and NT$22.3 billion, from last quarter’s NT$19.87 billion, in which handset chips contributed more than 70 percent of the total.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors