NEC Bullish on IC Platform Performance

NEC Electronics is looking for a sharp increase in profitability based on sales of platform ICs, particularly for mobile phones, according to CEO Toshio Nakajima. Last year, NEC Electronics had an 11 per cent market share in WCDMA baseband chips, behind Texas Instruments (TI) 42 per cent market share and Qualcomm’s 26 per cent, according to analyst iSuppli. Behind the plan is the development of platform ICs such as envisaged by the recent Adcore-Tech consortium between NEC, NEC Electronics, Matsushita, Panasonic Mobile and TI.

According to Nakajima: “By developing a wide range of platforms with common architectures and interfaces, there is greater efficiency in development as well as the ability to provide customers with complete and easy to use solutions.”

Although NEC Electronics is separate from NEC, with its shares independently quoted on the Tokyo stock exchange, NEC holds 70 per cent of the company’s voting rights. NEC Group accounts for 9.5 per cent of NEC Electronics sales. Continue>>