New applications for serial NOR flash memory will support and propel the market over the next four years, said Winbond Electronics president Tung-Yi Chan at an April 26 investors conference.

Emerging end-use applications for serial flash will be mostly related to the growing popularity of mobile devices, said Chan, adding that the new target markets will be developed and fuel demand for the chips.

Meanwhile, Winbond will continue making progress in its transition to 58nm process technology, Chan indicated. The newer manufacturing node accounted for 33% of its overall NOR flash revenues in the first quarter of 2013, up from 20% in the previous quarter, Chan disclosed.

As for Winbond's specialty DRAM business, Chan noted that prices for the memory are being pushed up along with a recent rally in standard memory prices. The product line's gross profit margin is expected to recover to reasonable levels with higher sales volumes and favorable pricing, Chan said.

Winbond also manufactures mobile DRAM products for mainly feature phones. Sales of low-power 1Gb chips already accounted for more than 50% of the company's overall mobile DRAM revenues in the first quarter of 2013, Chan revealed.

Winbond has budgeted NT$1.9 billion (US$64.3 million) in capex for 2013, down from the NT$3 billion allocated in 2012, according to Chan. Chan added that the company has no plans to expand its production capacity in the short term, and will outsource if in-house capacity fails to meet demand.

By: DocMemory
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