MediaTek Inc., Taiwan`s No.1 chip design house by market capitalization, raked in NT$8.5 billion (US$286 million at US$1:NT$30) in revenue in July, surging 25.93% from a month earlier and toping institutional investors` projections.

Industry watchers ascribed the robust July revenue this year mostly to the August Beijing Olympic Games, which inspired MediaTek`s customers of mobile-phone chips to compete for the chips earlier than before.

Retailers of the chips estimated the mainland`s demand for mobile phones to expand after the games, based on the observation that the demand for generic cellphones remained strong until last week in the mainland.

MediaTek`s executives expect revenue for August to remain strong, but they are not sure whether August revenue will go beyond the July level. However, they forecast the company`s sales to likely enter into low gear in September. For this reason, the company will maintain its growth projection for current quarter at 8-10% clip.

The company said its shipments of all product lines would increase this quarter, with TV chips and mobile-phone chips leading the way. However, the company conceded that exploding shipments were unlikely this year since boom season this year is not as strong as last year`s.

Although the mainland`s market for TD-SCDMA mobile phones did not take off before the Beijing Olympic Games and MediaTek`s shipment of chips for the phones had been in only low volume, MediaTek believes the mainland market will have a robust outlook with strong government backup.

Like MediaTek, 3Cnet Informatics Inc., which specializes in LCD drive ICs for mobile phones, saw its revenue for July surge by over 20% from June to reach NT$456 million (US$15 million). Excessive demands from mainland Chinese vendors of generic mobile phones are also the major reason behind the growth.

Source:cens.com