Samsung to boost system chip sales by 43 pc

SEOUL, S.KOREA: Samsung Electronics said on Wednesday that it expects sales of system chips to rise by 43 per cent this year thanks to the growing popularity of smartphones and tablet PCs.

NS Woo, president of Samsung Electronics' System LSI Division, made the remarks at a weekly meeting of executives from parent company Samsung Group, a spokesperson said.

"Woo said Samsung Electronics expects to increase its system LSI sales to around 10 trillion won ($8.89 billion) this year, from last year's 7 trillion won," she said.

Samsung Electronics is betting on system chip business to help offset slowing growth in memory chip demand.

The South Korean company is the world's biggest maker of memory chips but it lags far behind in the non-memory chip processor business dominated by the likes of Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Broadcom.

Woo said the system chip market is forecast to expand at an annual average rate of 6 per cent from 2010 to 2014, double the projected growth rate of memory chips, the spokesperson said.

He said Samsung Electronics will also continue to focus on image sensors and foundry businesses.