Cogo announces tablet revenue accelerating faster than expected

SHENZHEN, CHINA: Cogo Group Inc., a leading gateway for global semiconductor companies to access the industrial and technology markets in China, announced that its tablet revenue is accelerating faster than expected.

The better than expected revenue is due to the faster than expected growth of the China tablet market combined with a continued increase in the number of Cogo's tablet customers. Cogo began recording tablet revenue in November of 2010. Additionally, several of Cogo's customers debuted their tablet products at the recent Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas and have received overwhelmingly positive feedback.

Cogo provides integrated, embedded solutions that include an MCU (microcontroller unit), memory and wireless access (either 3G or WiFi) from several of its leading global semiconductor partners. Cogo's average selling price for these devices is significantly higher than its ASP for embedded high-end 3G Smart-phone solutions currently shipping.

As expected, the global success of Apple's iPad has raised consumer awareness and demand for touch-screen tablet products in China. Consequently, dozens of digital media and consumer electronics companies in China have begun to produce tablets at a variety of price points using several different operating systems, including Android, Windows and others.

"I am excited that the market for touch-screen tablets in China has taken off even faster than our optimistic expectations," commented Jeffrey Kang, CEO of Cogo. "This, combined with the continued growth of our tablet customer base, makes us even more confident about continued strong growth in our digital media segment in 2011. Overall, we continue to see broad-based order strength across all of our end markets and we look forward to another year of strong revenue growth."