Realtek Semiconductor has estimated that its first quarter revenues will stay flat or grow slightly on quarter, thanks to rush orders from PC applications. The IC design house posted January sales of NT$850 million (US$25.2 million), up 10% sequentially.
Realteck's sales for the fourth quarter of 2008 totaled NT$3.08 billion with NT$110 million net losses. Accumulated sales in 2008 were NT$16.7 billion, up 6.6% on year. Average gross margin was 42.26%.
Chin-hsing Chen, executive vice president of Realtek, pointed out pricing pressure in 2009 is bigger than last year, and the fall of chip ASP is inevitable. However, Realtek strives to lower cost and expects to maintain average gross margin of 40% or above this year.
The company introduced 65nm WLAN 11n single chips in the fourth quarter of 2008 and will continue to launch new products in the 11n, 10/100 Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet and audio codec segments in 2009.
Article translated by Meiling Chen
