IC design house MediaTek expects to report a 10-18% sequential decrease in consolidated revenues for the first quarter of 2013, due to a slowdown in orders for smartphones, as well as fewer working days caused by the Lunar New Year holiday.

Inventory correction in China's smartphone industry supply chain has had a negative impact on MediaTek's performance since late 2012, said company president Hsieh Ching-chiang at a February 4 investors meeting. Shipments of MediaTek's smartphone solutions will likely fall to 35-40 million units in the first quarter of 2013 from 40-45 million in the prior quarter, Hsieh indicated.

MediaTek's consolidated sales for the fourth quarter of 2012 slipped 9.3% sequentially to NT$26.74 billion (US$902.8 million), missing the company's guidance range of NT$28.9-30.9 billion. Hsieh attributed the shortfall to the company's smartphone-IC shipments, which had performed below expectations.

However, MediaTek is likely to enjoy a strong rebound in sales in March, when shipments of its quad-core processors for smartphones scale up significantly, Hsieh noted.

Smartphone solutions accounted for as high as 38-43% of MediaTek's overall revenues in the fourth quarter of 2012, Hsieh disclosed. In all of 2012, the firm shipped a total of 110 million smartphone ICs, Hsieh said.

MediaTek expects its IC shipments for smartphones to top 200 million units in 2013, an about 80% jump, according to Hsieh. Of the target shipments, dual-core solutions will account for 40-50% followed by quad-core chips with 25-35%, Hsieh predicted.

MediaTek announced consolidated revenues for 2012 grew 14% to NT$99.93 billion, while net profits increased 15% to NT$15.69 billion. EPS for the year came to NT$12.90.