Brisk sales of Lenovo's A60-series smartphone in China has been boosting MediaTek's shipments of its 3.5G solution, the MT6573, according to market sources. Order momentum is expected to remain strong to sustain the chip supplier's sales growth in September and the third quarter.

The new Lenovo smartphone hit store shelves in China earlier in the third quarter, but has been selling well thanks to its rich feature set and affordable price point, the sources said. With demand outpacing supply, the A60 has been quoted at as high as CNY1,100 (US$172) by local channel operators, up about 30% from the just over CNY800 original priced, the sources indicated.

Meanwhile, in view of the Lenovo A60's rising popularity, China's channel operators have released more orders for th device prior to China's National Day holidays, the sources observed. The booming demand will simultaneously push up MediaTek's sales generated from the orders placed by Lenovo, the sources said.

MediaTek began to ship its MT6573 3.5G chipset solution to China in August. The company was quoted as saying in previous reports that it aims to ship 10 million 3G smartphone solutions in 2011.

MediaTek has estimated consolidated revenues at NT$22-23 billion (US$743-777 million) for the third quarter of 2011. Sales grew 16.3% sequentially to NT$8.31 billion in August, and are expected to post another sequential growth in September.

Market watchers now expect MediaTek to enjoy a more than 15% sequential increase in third-quarter sales, exceeding its guidance of 5-10% growth given previously.

Source:digitimes