Customers Fill Inventory, MediaTek 3G Chip out of Stock

Currently, MediaTek 3G chips are so popular in the mainland China markets. Originally, customers are not so confident for 3G mobile phone replacemen trend in the mainland and the emerging markets. So they maintain low inventory level. However, the Lenovo A60 smartphones is quite eye-catching in terminal market, which attracts mainland brands and whitebox handset manufacturers to rush to purchase MediaTek MT6573, resulting in short-term market demand exceeds supply. Taiwan IC designers express that the lack of MediaTek chips might drag out September performance, but it will significantly increase the shipments for the fourth quarter.

Taiwan IC designers further say that downstream Taiwan-based foundries and European brand goods plants are committed to clear components inventory in the late second quarter and early third quarter. The entire technology chain components inventory level is generally low, even lower, and the customers could not tell exactly what kind of parts inventory is low. They can only wait until the chips are really out of stock that they can find out which parts is out of stock, and then they will take great actions to fill the inventory.

Mainland Whitebox handset manufacturers said, as the popularity of the Lenovo A60  smartphones in the terminal markets, adding China Mobile and China Unicom are going to focus on the smartphones market and introduce some affordable subsidies and network charging mechanism, Mainland customers begin to take upgrade actions to buy smartphones, which leads to the great demand of smartphones.

Driven by the market demand, it has attracted plenty of whitebox handset manufacturers to join this market competition and release their smartphones. While the stock of MediaTek MT6573 is not so much, under the recent rush to order MediaTek 3G chips, the related industry chain encounters out of chip stock crisis. According to some news, the supply of MT6573 will be filled up until October.