NXP Semiconductors said its NFC revenue fell in the third quarter, the second straight quarterly drop, though CEO Richard Clemmer said the Netherlands-based chip maker is “as convinced with the opportunity for NFC across the board as we ever have been,” and added that NXP would compete “aggressively” for the Samsung Galaxy S5.
NXP, which lost the NFC controller business for Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S4 to rival Broadcom, hopes to get it back for the following version of Samsung’s popular flagship, expected to be released by next spring.
Still, Clemmer, speaking to financial analysts Thursday following release of NXP’s third quarter earnings report, said he didn’t expect the chip maker’s NFC unit to “meaningfully reaccelerate” until at least mid-2014. “To be fair, it will kind of be mid-next year to next fall before we see a significant ramp-up in additional design wins in the mobile transactions space,” he said.