Memory controller IC supplier Silicon Motion Technology has announced net sales of US$50.5 million for the second quarter of 2011, an increase of 56% from the same period in 2010 and also marking the second highest quarterly level in its history. The company also reported its GAAP net income increased to US$4.5 million in the second quarter, doubling from US$2.25 million a year earlier.
Silicon Motion revealed that sales of its SSD and embedded solutions rose by 30% sequentially in the second quarter. The segment will remain the company's major growth driver in 2012, president and CEO Wallace Kou said in a statement.
Kou also indicated that Silicon Motion's shift to an OEM strategy buoyed the company's sales performance in the second quarter. "Sales to our flash maker customers and other OEMs increased 40% sequentially and accounted for about half of all mobile storage sales, up from about 40% in the prior quarter," Kou said. "Our rapidly growing OEM sales currently cater primarily to the increasing demand for cards bundled with smartphones, as well as low density SSD+embedded solutions."
Sales of Silicon Motion's mobile storage products, which are controllers for NAND flash devices such as memory cards and USB drives, and SSD controllers and embedded flash controllers, increased 9% sequentially to US$33.9 million in the second quarter. The segment accounted for 67% of company revenues.
As for development of eMMC solutions, Silicon Motion said it has secured over 12 design wins for smartphones and tablets, which mainly run the Android platform.
Silicon Motion's other product lines – mobile communications and multimedia SoC – accounted for 25% and 7%, respectively, of company revenues in the second quarter. The former business consists of primarily mobile TV IC solutions and handset transceivers, whereas the latter includes mainly embedded graphics processors.
Looking forward, Silicon Motion expects third-quarter revenues to be down 5% to up 5% from the prior quarter.
"While NAND flash industry supply will continue to increase in the second half of 2011, incremental supply of flash could be consumed by growing demand for smartphones, tablets, and SSDs, and less by module makers for the retail market," Kou said. "Because of the strength of our business year-to-date, we are increasing our full year guidance and believe we are on track to delivering the largest annual revenue in the company's history."
Silicon Motion aims for 40-50% revenue growth in 2011. It previously forecast a smaller 30-40% rise.