Taiwan's IC design industry performed rather steadily in the fourth quarter of 2012 generating combined revenues of NT$105.8 billion (US$3.58 billion), which were down 7.8% from the previous quarter but up 9.7% from a year earlier, according to Digitimes Research.

In the quarter, some large-scale design houses performed lower than the industry's average in the product segment that were related to PC products; MediaTek saw the shipment momentum of its smartphone solutions slow down due to inventory adjustments at clients as well as increasing competition from Qualcomm, said Digitimes Research.

The top-10 IC vendors posted combined revenues of NT$71.3 billion in the fourth quarter, representing a decline of 6.4% sequentially and accounting for 67.4% of the industry's total revenues, compared to 63.8% and 66.4% in the previous two quarters.

Four out of the top-10 IC design houses in terms of revenues in the fourth quarter were LCD driver IC suppliers, and three among the four driver IC vendors posted a sequential growth rate higher than the industry's average in the quarter, indicating their competitive advantage globally.

For all of 2012, Taiwan's IC design houses generated revenues of NT$413.3 billion, increasing 6.4% from a year earlier, thanks to a substantial growth in shipments of smartphone solutions as well as improvements in specifications for all ICs in general, Digitimes commented.