Taiwan-based IC design houses will target the smartphone, tablet and LED lighting sectors in order to ramp up their sales and earnings in 2014, according to industry observers.

The performance of most IC vendors has been better than expected in the fourth quarter of 2013 so far, and the current wave of sales momentum is likely to continue in 2014 based on the industry's previous experience, commented the observers.

Those IC design houses which have been cooperating with MediaTek are set to enjoy continued brisk sales in 2014 as MediaTek is expected to be able to continue boosting its share in the smartphone solution markets in China and other emerging markets in 2014, said the sources, adding that MediaTek has taken over 50% of these markets in 2013.

Taiwan-based IC design houses will also manage to ramp up shipments of their Wi-Fi chips, ambient light and proximity sensors, power management ICs, LCD driver ICs and touchscreen controller ICs to the white-box tablet sector in 2014, noted the sources, adding that tablet sales in China and other emerging markets combined are expected to reach 180-200 million units in the coming year, estimated the sources.

LED driver IC suppliers including On-Bright Electronics, Macroblock and Silergy, as well as analog IC vendors Richtek Technology, Global Mixed-mode Technology (GMT) and Leadtrend Technology will focus on boosting sales of their LED driver ICs to China, where the LED lighting industry will continue to grow robustly in 2014, commented the sources.