WOLFSON Microelectronics, the Edinburgh-based maker of chips for a fast-growing number of the world's must-have electronic gadgets, has halved its first quarter losses and said it expects to be back in the black by the end of the year.
Chief executive Mike Hickey also shrugged off concerns about the impact of the Japanese earthquake, and said that while 17% of its revenue is generated by its deals with Japanese companies, as yet there had been “no supply issues”.
However, he added: “We continue to monitor the situation closely with customers and suppliers.”
At the same time, Wolfson announced a 44% increase in revenues to $41.1 million (£24.8m) in the three months to April 3.
Pre-tax losses fell to $3.5m (£2.1m) during the period, compared with $6.9m (£4.1m) last time.
Mr Hickey said: “We are very pleased with the revenues and design wins. We are now in a lot of the Android tablets. We are now in 16 tablets – but we are not in the iPad.
“Smartphones are also growing very fast for us, and eBooks as well. We’re in all the big ones, including the Kindle and the Nook.”
Wolfson said during the first quarter it had undertaken new projects with existing companies including LG and Samsung. It also won a number of new clients including Research in Motion, which selected a Wolfson audio chip for its recently launched BlackBerry PlayBook tablet PC.
The company expects revenues for the second quarter to be in the range of $37m (£22.3m) to $45m (£27.1m).
Shares in Wolfson surged 6.7% to 231.5p yesterday.
Wolfson is benefiting from its current lead over key competitors in the audio hub space and the growth of the smartphone market.
Sales more than doubled year-on-year in mobile phones, particularly smartphones, gaming, eBooks and PC-tablets.
However, this was partly offset by weaker performance in televisions, digital still cameras, portable navigation devices and imaging.
Wolfson’s chips are best-known for tasks such as converting digital data into analogue signals for speakers and helping ensure that even tiny systems can meet standards set by discerning listeners. They are the key components of the fast-growing number of portable communications devices.
Wolfson also provides the chips for DVD players, computer game consoles, Blu Ray players, satellite navigation systems, flatscreen TVs, laptops, and cameras.
Meanwhile, the company said that Chinese equipment and mobile phone maker ZTE had selected Wolfson’s Audio Hubs, with the first product being its new tablet PC.
The company also said that a major global Japanese consumer electronics brand selected Wolfson’s audio hubs for its new portable gaming console and its new tablet PCs, but that it was unable at this stage to identify the customer.
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