輝達 (NVDA) 2004 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day everyone and welcome to PortalPlayer Inc. fourth quarter and fiscal 2004 earnings conference call. Today's call is being recorded and will be available for playback beginning in approximately 2 hours after the end of the conference. To access a replay, please dial 1-719-457-0820, with the passcode 114335. At this time for opening remarks and introductions, I'd like to turn the call over to Christine Moses (ph), Investor Relations for PortalPlayer. Please go ahead.

大家好，歡迎參加 PortalPlayer Inc. 2004 財年第四季和財報電話會議。今天的通話正在錄音，會議結束後約 2 小時後即可播放。若要存取重播，請撥打 1-719-457-0820，密碼為 114335。現在，為了發表開場白和介紹，我想將電話轉給 PortalPlayer 投資者關係部的 Christine Moses (ph)。請繼續。

Thank you, and thank you for joining us today. In addition to this call being available by phone replay, it is being webcast live via the investor relations page of PortalPlayer's Web site at www.portalplayer.com. Earlier today, we issued our earnings press release and filed it with the SEC. The press release is also available on PortalPlayer's Web site. That press release contains certain non-GAAP financial measures which we will discuss during today's call, together with the most directly comparable financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP and reconciliations of the differences between these measures.

謝謝，也謝謝您今天加入我們。本次電話會議除了可透過電話重播提供外，還可透過 PortalPlayer 網站 www.portalplayer.com 的投資人關係頁面進行網路直播。今天早些時候，我們發布了收益新聞稿並提交給了美國證券交易委員會。新聞稿也可在 PortalPlayer 的網站上查閱。新聞稿包含某些非 GAAP 財務指標，我們將在今天的電話會議上討論這些指標，以及根據 GAAP 計算的最直接可比較的財務指標以及這些指標之間差異的對帳。

With me today is Gary Johnson, President and CEO of PortalPlayer and Olav Carlson, PortalPlayer's Chief Financial Officer. I'll begin the call by reading our Safe Harbor statement.

今天與我一起的還有 PortalPlayer 總裁兼執行長加里·約翰遜 (Gary Johnson) 和 PortalPlayer 財務長 Olav Carlson。我首先要宣讀我們的安全港聲明。

Before we begin our discussions, statements on today's call which are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements include but are not limited to statements as to future development efforts, future introduction of products and technology, the growth of the MP3 market, the expected benefits of our products and technology, future financial results, including revenue, net income, expenses, tax rates, cash flow and future R&D spending. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements. Please refer to today's earnings release and our prospectus dated November 18, 2004 as filed with the SEC and from time to time in our SEC reports for information on risk factors that can cause actual results to differ materially from those differ materially from those discussed in these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. PortalPlayer disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Additionally, this conference call is the property of PortalPlayer and may not be recorded or rebroadcast without specific written permission from the Company. Now I would like to turn the call over to Gary for his introductory remarks.

在我們開始討論之前，今天電話會議上的非歷史事實的陳述屬於《私人證券訴訟改革法案》所定義的前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述包括但不限於有關未來發展努力、未來推出的產品和技術、MP3 市場的成長、我們的產品和技術的預期效益、未來財務結果（包括收入、淨收入、費用、稅率、現金流量和未來研發支出）的陳述。這些前瞻性陳述受到許多風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述中討論的結果有重大差異。請參閱今天的收益報告和我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的日期為 2004 年 11 月 18 日的招股說明書以及我們不時在美國證券交易委員會報告中提及的可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述中討論的結果存在重大差異的風險因素的信息。這些前瞻性陳述僅代表截至本文發布之日的觀點。 PortalPlayer 不承擔任何更新這些前瞻性聲明的意圖或義務。此外，本次電話會議屬於 PortalPlayer 的財產，未經本公司書面許可不得錄製或轉播。現在我想把電話交給加里，請他作開場發言。

Thank you and welcome to our first earnings call following our initial public offering. We're very pleased with the financial and business achievements we're reporting for the fourth quarter and year end 2004.

謝謝您，歡迎參加我們首次公開募股後的第一次收益電話會議。我們對 2004 年第四季和年末報告的財務和業務成就感到非常滿意。

During today's conference call, we will discuss some of the recent highlights, which include growing revenues 75 percent from third quarter 2004 revenues and more than quadrupling our fiscal revenue over last year. We also achieved a critical milestone of profitability both in Q4 and for the full year.

在今天的電話會議中，我們將討論最近的一些亮點，其中包括收入較 2004 年第三季度增長 75% 以及財政收入較去年同期增長四倍多。我們還在第四季度和全年實現了盈利的關鍵里程碑。

In November, we raised more than $113 million from our initial public offering and following the successful launch of our Photo Edition platform in early 2004, we saw this translate into design wins in the second half of the year with a number of leading grams (ph) worldwide.

11 月份，我們透過首次公開募股籌集了超過 1.13 億美元的資金，繼 2004 年初成功推出照片版平台之後，我們看到這一成果在下半年轉化為設計勝利，並獲得了全球多家領先廠商的支持。

I also want to acknowledge all our dedicated employees and their families around the world. With their help, the Company has been able to continue to offer its customers innovative products, leading to another record quarter for PortalPlayer. In a few minutes, I will go to more detail about our fourth quarter progress and fiscal 2005 outlook. But first, I will turn the call over to Olav, who will take you through the fourth quarter and year-end financials.

我還要感謝我們世界各地所有敬業的員工及其家人。在他們的幫助下，公司能夠繼續向客戶提供創新產品，從而使 PortalPlayer 再創季度紀錄。幾分鐘後，我將更詳細地介紹我們第四季的進展和 2005 財年的展望。但首先，我將把電話轉給奧拉夫，他將向大家介紹第四季和年終的財務狀況。

Thank you, Gary. Net revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004 ended December 31 was $44.7 million, the highest quarterly revenue in our history. This is up 75 percent from the $25.6 million in the third quarter of 2004 and more than 5 times the revenue of $8.1 million in the fourth quarter a year ago. Net income for the fourth quarter was $10.5 million, or an income of 50 -- that is 5-0 -- cents per diluted share based on 21.1 million weighted average shares outstanding. The effective tax rate was about 3 percent. This compares with a net income of $3.2 million or 18 cents per diluted share based on 17.4 million weighted average shares outstanding in the third quarter of 2004 and a net loss of $759,000, or a loss of $6.54 per share based on approximately 116,000 weighted average shares outstanding in the same quarter a year ago.

謝謝你，加里。截至 12 月 31 日的 2004 財年第四季淨收入為 4,470 萬美元，這是我們歷史上最高的季度收入。這一數字比 2004 年第三季的 2,560 萬美元成長了 75%，是去年第四季 810 萬美元營收的 5 倍多。第四季淨收入為 1,050 萬美元，或基於 2,110 萬股加權平均流通股計算，每股收益為 50 美分（即 5-0）。實際稅率約為3%。相較之下，2004 年第三季度，基於 1,740 萬股加權平均流通股計算，淨收入為 320 萬美元，即每股 18 美分；而去年同期，基於約 116,000 股加權平均流通股計算，淨虧損為 759,000 美元，即每股虧損 6.54 美元。

Excluding non-cash stock compensation charges of $755,000, non-GAAP net income for the fourth quarter of 2004 was $11.2 million, or 53 cents per diluted share. Non-GAAP net income for the third quarter of 2004 was $4.6 million, or 26 cents per diluted share and non-GAAP net loss in the fourth quarter of 2003 was $640,000, or loss of $5.51 per share. In our earnings release, we provided the detailed reconciliation between GAAP numbers and non-GAAP numbers which details the stock compensation charges.

不計入 755,000 美元的非現金股票補償費用，2004 年第四季的非 GAAP 淨收入為 1,120 萬美元，或每股 53 美分。 2004 年第三季非 GAAP 淨收入為 460 萬美元，即每股 26 美分，2003 年第四季非 GAAP 淨虧損為 64 萬美元，即每股虧損 5.51 美元。在我們的收益報告中，我們提供了 GAAP 數字和非 GAAP 數字之間的詳細對賬，其中詳細說明了股票薪酬費用。

Now let me discuss our information on this quarter's P&L and then I will move onto the balance sheet. Our gross margin for the fourth quarter was 43.4 percent for a gross profit of $19.4 million. Operating expenses for R&D and SG&A were $8.1 million in the fourth quarter, an increase of approximately $2.2 million over the previous quarter.

現在讓我討論一下本季損益表的信息，然後我將轉到資產負債表。我們第四季的毛利率為 43.4%，毛利為 1,940 萬美元。第四季研發和銷售、一般及行政費用的營運費用為 810 萬美元，比上一季增加約 220 萬美元。

Let me break this down for you. The majority of the additional spending, $1.4 million, was allocated to our R&D activities. We spent a total of $5.3 million in R&D this quarter, which is about 12 percent of our revenue. The sequential increase was primarily due to an increase in headcount and our e-type (ph) expenses. For the first quarter of 2005, we expect R&D to be at about $6.9 million as we continue to invest in our core technologies of semiconductors, firmware and software.

讓我來為您詳細解釋。額外支出的大部分（140 萬美元）被分配給我們的研發活動。本季我們在研發上總共花了 530 萬美元，約占我們營收的 12%。連續成長主要是由於員工人數增加和 e-type (ph) 費用增加。 2005 年第一季度，我們預計研發費用將達到約 690 萬美元，因為我們將繼續投資於半導體、韌體和軟體等核心技術。

SG&A expenses in the fourth quarter were $2.8 million, or about 6 percent of our revenue, which is an $800,000 increase from the previous quarter. The increase was mainly due to higher spending for some marketing activities and the costs associated with now operating as a public company. For the first quarter of 2005, we expect SG&A to remain relatively flat at about $2.7 million. We expect our non-cash stock compensation charges to be approximately $400,000 in the first quarter of fiscal 2005. However, the stock compensation charge will also include a small variable element based on our ending stock price, and therefore the exact amount is hard to predict.

第四季的銷售、一般及行政費用為 280 萬美元，約占我們收入的 6%，比上一季增加了 80 萬美元。成長的主要原因是一些行銷活動的支出增加以及作為上市公司營運的相關成本。對於 2005 年第一季度，我們預計銷售、一般及行政費用 (SG&A) 將保持相對平穩，約 270 萬美元。我們預計2005財年第一季的非現金股票薪酬費用約為40萬美元。然而，股票薪酬費用還將包括基於我們期末股價的一小筆可變因素，因此確切金額難以預測。

Touching briefly on the fiscal 2004 results, net revenue for fiscal 2004 was $92.6 million, more than 4 times the $20.9 million in revenue for fiscal 2003. Net income for fiscal 2004 was $10.4 million, or an income of 57 cents per diluted share based on 18.1 million weighted average shares outstanding. This compares with a net loss of $8 million, or a loss of more than $124 per share based on about 65,000 weighted average shares outstanding in 2003.

簡單回顧一下 2004 財年的業績，2004 財年的淨收入為 9,260 萬美元，是 2003 財年 2,090 萬美元收入的四倍多。 2004 財年的淨收入為 1,040 萬美元，或根據 1,810 萬股加權平均流通股計算，每股攤薄收益為 57 美分。相較之下，2003 年該公司的淨虧損為 800 萬美元，以 2003 年約 65,000 股加權平均流通股計算，每股虧損超過 124 美元。

Non-GAAP net income for fiscal 2004 was $16.2 million, or 89 cents per diluted share compared with a non-GAAP net loss of $7.6 million, or a loss of about $117 per share in fiscal 2003. Both the results for the fourth quarter and for the year have benefited from our tax net operating loss carryforward that offset most of our taxable income in the year. For federal tax purposes, we're carrying approximately $6 million of freely available NOL forward into 2005, and taking this into consideration, we expect to use a 25 percent effective tax rate in the first quarter of the year.

2004 財年非 GAAP 淨收入為 1,620 萬美元，或每股攤薄收益 89 美分，而 2003 財年非 GAAP 淨虧損為 760 萬美元，或每股虧損約 117 美元。第四季和全年業績均受惠於我們的稅收淨營運虧損結轉，這抵銷了我們當年的大部分應稅收入。出於聯邦稅收的目的，我們將大約 600 萬美元的可自由使用的 NOL 結轉到 2005 年，考慮到這一點，我們預計在今年第一季使用 25% 的有效稅率。

Now turning to the balance sheet. In the fourth quarter, we successfully completed our initial public offering of about 7.2 million of shares of common stock, which included more than 900,000 shares the underwriters purchased when they exercise their full overallotment option. Net proceeds to the Company before expenses and including the overallotment were $113.6 million. With part of the proceeds, we repaid all of our outstanding balances under our bank borrowings, at the time $2.3 million, and are now debt-free. Our accounts receivable were 20.1 million with an average DSO of about 41 days and our inventory balance at December 31 was at $1.8 million, all fit finished goods. Deferred income, which represents the margin on those shipments that we defer in accordance with our revenue recognition policy, was at $4 million at the end of the fourth quarter. Headcount at the end of the quarter was 181. We added 25 employees during the fourth quarter, 90 percent of which were in engineering functions and 10 percent in other SG&A functions. And at the end of the quarter, more than 3 quarters of our overall headcount was focused on our current or strategic R&D activities. And again, half of our overall headcount was based on our location in (indiscernible) in India. And with that at this time, I'd like to turn the call back over to Gary for his comments.

現在轉向資產負債表。第四季度，我們成功完成了約 720 萬股普通股的首次公開發行，其中包括承銷商在行使全部超額配售選擇權時購買的 90 多萬股。扣除費用並包括超額配售在內的公司淨收益為 1.136 億美元。我們用部分收益償還了銀行借款的所有未償還餘額（當時為 230 萬美元），現在已無債務。我們的應收帳款為 2,010 萬美元，平均 DSO 約為 41 天，12 月 31 日的庫存餘額為 180 萬美元，全部為成品。遞延收入代表我們根據收入確認政策遞延的貨物運輸的利潤，第四季末為 400 萬美元。本季末的員工總數為 181 人。我們在第四季增加了 25 名員工，其中 90% 負責工程職能，10% 負責其他銷售、一般及行政管理職能。截至本季末，我們超過四分之三的員工專注於當前或策略研發活動。再次強調，我們總員工人數的一半位於印度（音訊不清楚）。現在，我想將電話轉回給加里，聽聽他的意見。

Thank you, Olav. As you can see from the financials, the fourth quarter was a great ending to a great year. On the operations side, our dedication to providing innovative platforms has resulted in increased customer adoption during fiscal 2004. We're very proud to say that our fourth-generation platform, the Photo Edition, has recently resulted in innovative new products from Apple Computer, Gateway, Reigncom -- also known as iRiver -- Samsung and Tatung.

謝謝你，奧拉夫。從財務數據可以看出，第四季為這一年畫下了圓滿的句點。在營運方面，我們致力於提供創新平台，這使得我們 2004 財年的客戶採用率有所提高。我們非常自豪地說，我們的第四代平台 Photo Edition 最近為蘋果電腦、Gateway、Reigncom（也稱為 iRiver）、三星和大同帶來了創新的新產品。

In addition, during 2004, our Audio Edition platform was used in products by iGo, one of the largest MP3 suppliers in China; Iowa/Stoney (ph), Apple Computer, Bang and Olufsen, BenQ, Median -- a leading German brand -- Mitac, Olympus, Philips, RCA, Rio, Rock Digital -- which is selling in Macy's and CompUSA -- Roland, Samsung, and Virgin Electronics. Our customer strategy is to focus our efforts on winning designs on most companies that we believe are brand leaders worldwide, those that have the marketing clout and shelf space to enable their products to potentially ramp to significant volumes. The combination of our robust system-on-chip solution, innovative firmware and software and flexible development kit has proven to be good fit for these customers who want to design leading edge differentiated products in this fast-growing market.

此外，2004年，我們的Audio Edition平台被中國最大的MP3供應商之一iGo的產品所採用； Iowa/Stoney (ph)、蘋果電腦、Bang and Olufsen、明基、Median（德國領先品牌）、Mitac、奧林巴斯、飛利浦、RCA、Rio、Rock Digital（在德國領先品牌）、Mitac、Olympus、Tide、RCA、Rio、Rock Digital（在德國領先品牌）。我們的客戶策略是專注於爭取我們認為是全球品牌領導者的大多數公司的成功設計，這些公司擁有行銷影響力和貨架空間，可以使其產品潛在地大幅增加銷售量。事實證明，我們強大的系統單晶片解決方案、創新的韌體和軟體以及靈活的開發套件的組合非常適合那些想要在這個快速成長的市場中設計前沿差異化產品的客戶。

For example, iRiver, a Korean-based leader in the MP3 market, recently introduced the H10 MP3 Jukebox based on our platform. The H10 has 5 gigabyte, 1-inch hard drive with a color screen and detachable battery and an FM radio in space (ph) on our Photo Edition platform. The product has been receiving very favorable product reviews and was showcased by Bill Gates in his keynote at the consumer electronics show earlier this month in Las Vegas.

例如，韓國 MP3 市場領導者 iRiver 最近推出了基於我們平台的 H10 MP3 點唱機。 H10 擁有 5 GB 的儲存空間、1 吋硬碟、彩色螢幕、可拆卸電池以及我們照片版平台上的太空 (ph) FM 收音機。該產品一直獲得非常良好的產品評價，並於本月早些時候在拉斯維加斯消費電子展的主題演講中由比爾蓋茲展示。

Another example is the recently introduced 5 gigabyte MR 100 M-Rove (ph) MP3 player by Olympus. The device is a sleek, stylish new MP3 player with a beautiful user interface and boasts some unique features, such as the ability to view song lyrics on the display. Olympus is the leading developer of award-winning products for consumer and professional markets alike and we're delighted to have them as a new customer.

另一個例子是奧林巴斯最近推出的 5 GB MR 100 M-Rove (ph) MP3 播放器。該設備是一款時尚的新型 MP3 播放器，具有漂亮的用戶介面，並具有一些獨特的功能，例如可以在顯示器上查看歌詞。奧林巴斯是消費者和專業市場的獲獎產品的領先開發商，我們很高興他們成為新客戶。

In 2005, we intend to continue our focus on product development efforts on the feature-rich segments of the personal media player market, as well as launch a new platform generation that will enable our customers to continue to offer innovative industry-leading products. We have had significant ongoing initiatives in the area of power management and connectivity. We plan to detail in future calls when we're at liberty to discuss them.

2005年，我們打算繼續致力於個人媒體播放器市場中功能豐富的產品開發，同時推出新一代平台，使我們的客戶能夠繼續提供創新的業界領先產品。我們在電源管理和連接領域已經採取了重大措施。當我們有空討論這些問題時，我們計劃在未來的電話會議中詳細說明。

We believe fiscal 2005 will be a significant growth year for both the Flash and hard drive MP3 markets as demand continues to be strong in both segments. On the supply side, we believe the addition of capacity from the HTD vendors will ramp throughout the year to support strong year-over-year growth. Given this, we believe that fiscal 2005 will not be as seasonal as the traditional consumer electronics historical trend.

我們相信，2005財年對於快閃記憶體和硬碟MP3市場來說都將是一個顯著的成長年，因為這兩個領域的需求都將持續保持強勁。在供應方面，我們相信 HTD 供應商的產能增加將在全年增加，以支持強勁的同比增長。有鑑於此，我們認為 2005 財年將不會像傳統消費性電子產品的歷史趨勢那樣具有季節性。

This, coupled with the fact that we're coming up a strong fourth quarter revenue base, leads us to guide first-quarter revenues to be down only 10 to 20 percent sequentially. We expect GAAP net income per diluted share to be between 16 and 19 cents, based on approximately 26 million weighted average shares outstanding. The effective tax rate for the first quarter is expected to be 25 percent, which takes into consideration, among other factors, the Company's net operating loss carryforwards for income tax purposes. Non-GAAP net income per diluted share would exclude approximately 400,000 shares of stock-based compensation charges, is expected to be between 18 and 21 cents. We expect operating expenses to increase to approximately $9.6 million. The majority of this increase is due to R&D spending to develop new platforms. We also expect to continue to generate positive operating cash flow.

再加上我們第四季的營收基礎強勁，我們預計第一季的營收將僅比上一季下降 10% 至 20%。我們預計，基於約 2,600 萬股加權平均流通股，每股攤薄淨收益將在 1,6 至 19 美分之間。第一季的有效稅率預計為 25%，其中考慮了公司所得稅的淨營業虧損結轉等因素。非公認會計準則每股攤薄淨利潤將排除約40萬股的股票薪資費用，預計在18至21美分之間。我們預計營運費用將增加至約 960 萬美元。這一增長大部分源自於開發新平台的研發支出。我們也預計將繼續產生正的經營現金流。

In summary, we're very pleased with our fourth quarter fiscal 2004 results and we're excited about our position going forward into 2005. Operator, we're now ready for questions.

總而言之，我們對 2004 財年第四季的業績非常滿意，並且對 2005 年的發展前景充滿信心。接線員，我們現在可以回答問題了。

(Operator Instructions). Randy Abrams, CS First Boston.

（操作員指令）。蘭迪·艾布拉姆斯 (Randy Abrams)，CS First Boston。

I wanted to start off, if you could talk about in fourth quarter what the magnitude of revenue growth at your largest customer was versus other customers? And implied in first quarter, do you expect concentration to I guess diversify?

首先，您能否談談第四季度您最大客戶的營收成長幅度與其他客戶相比如何？並且暗示第一季度，您是否預計集中度會多樣化？

I don't think I can be too specific there in the answer, but I think what I can tell is you in the third quarter, as we noted in our prospectus, it was like 92.5 percent revenue concentrated with our most important customer. And that for the fourth quarter, I'm ready to say that this was below 90 percent; it was in the high 80's.

我認為我無法給出太具體的答案，但我認為我可以告訴你的是，在第三季度，正如我們在招股說明書中指出的那樣，92.5% 的收入集中在我們最重要的客戶身上。對於第四季度，我可以說這個數字低於 90%；當時氣溫高達華氏 80 度。

And could you talk about how inventory levels look at your customers for your chip sets? And maybe if you look out over the next couple of quarters, do you expect to track pretty close with your customers, or could we have some workdown or build of inventory?

您能否談談您的客戶對於晶片組的庫存水準如何？也許，如果您展望未來幾個季度，您是否希望與客戶保持密切聯繫，或​​者我們可以減少或增加庫存？

Well, I think I want to start answering in the following way, that we're always happy to give certain information on PortalPlayer's goal to progress each quarter. But I think you are aware that we do not intend to respond to questions specific to any one customer. In general terms with any customer, in the consumer electronics space, it is not as easy to track directly -- the track between supplier and customer is not always a direct tracking. There is buffer inventory in between. We only had visibility to a part of the supply chain, because usually, OEMs working with ODMs. We don't have visibility to that part of the supply chain, so it's not a direct track.

好吧，我想我要以以下方式開始回答，我們總是很樂意提供有關 PortalPlayer 每個季度進展目標的某些資訊。但我想您知道我們不打算回答針對任何一位客戶的具體問題。一般來說，對於任何客戶來說，在消費性電子領域，直接追蹤並不容易——供應商和客戶之間的追蹤並不總是直接追蹤。中間有緩衝庫存。我們只能看到供應鏈的一部分，因為通常情況下，OEM 與 ODM 合作。我們對供應鏈的這一部分沒有了解，因此這不是一條直接的軌道。

Okay. And just shifting over to gross margins, it look like it cam in a little bit better this quarter. What is your outlook going over for the next couple of quarters? Should we still stay with the same target model, or are there any swing factors, plus or minus?

好的。再來看看毛利率，本季的毛利率似乎有所改善。您對未來幾季的展望如何？我們是否仍應堅持相同的目標模型，或是否有任何波動因素，正負？

I think we're very satisfied with our current target model of 41 to 44 percent.

我認為我們對目前 41% 到 44% 的目標模型非常滿意。

Okay. What was the factor that drove it to be a little bit better this past quarter? Was it just volume, that we got the better volumes?

好的。是什麼因素導致上個季度的情況有所改善？只是因為音量，我們獲得了更好的音量嗎？

It's good volume, it's good negotiations on our side, on the supply-side. There is a minimal impact from sales of inventory that was previously written off. It's the lower percent of impact. And I think that is the mix for this answer.

數量不錯，對於我們供應方來說談判也很好。先前已註銷的庫存的銷售影響很小。其影響百分比較低。我認為這就是這個答案的綜合。

Final question. I know your strategy has been to go after the leading brands. Could you talk about now that you have a little bit more resources, is there any shift, at least in your mode, as to go after say some of the ODMs or new OEMs, or is it still not very profitable to chase after some of that business?

最後一個問題。我知道你們的策略一直是追趕領先品牌。您能否談談，現在您擁有了更多的資源，至少在模式上是否有任何轉變，例如追逐一些 ODM 或新的 OEM，或者追逐其中一些業務仍然不是很有利可圖？

Our (indiscernible) strategy won't shift. The actual additional resources we talk about is really for us to accelerate development on new platforms. As you know in this market, Randy, there's lots of new feature sets that the customers are demanding in this space. So we think the strategy of focusing on the global brands or the channel that can reach global brands will have served us well, and we intend to stay that path. Our investment is focusing on really serving those major global brands with great product platforms. So, no, no shift in customer focus at the present time.

我們的（音訊不清晰）策略不會改變。我們談論的實際額外資源確實是為了加速我們在新平台上的發展。蘭迪，如你所知，在這個市場上，客戶對這一領域有很多新功能的需求。因此，我們認為專注於全球品牌或能夠接觸全球品牌的管道的策略將對我們大有裨益，我們打算繼續堅持這條道路。我們的投資重​​點是真正為那些擁有優秀產品平台的全球主要品牌提供服務。所以，目前客戶關注點沒有發生轉變。

Thanks a lot, guys.

非常感謝大家。

Quinn Bolton, Needham & Co.

奎因·博爾頓，尼德漢姆公司

Good afternoon, guys, great quarter. First question, Olav, don't know if you can give us any detail on how units and ASPs trended through the quarter, but any insight you could give would be helpful?

大家下午好，這是一個很棒的季度。第一個問題，奧拉夫，不知道您是否可以向我們提供有關本季度單位和平均售價趨勢的詳細信息，但您提供的任何見解都會有所幫助嗎？

No, I cannot give you any inside point on those. Policy is not to comment on ASPs and not to comment on units. Sorry about that.

不，我無法給你任何有關這些方面的詳細資訊。政策是不對 ASP 進行評論，也不對單位進行評論。很抱歉。

Not even qualitatively up or down? Obviously, units were up.

從品質上來說甚至沒有上升或下降嗎？顯然，單位數增加了。

Qualitatively, units were up, quantitatively, and then no comment on ASP.

從質量上看，單位數量有所增加，但從數量上看，對 ASP 沒有評論。

Okay. Can you give us some sense -- is there one quarter -- do you guys check annual price contracts. Is there one quarter where we may see a bigger change in pricing quarter-over-quarter, or do you tend to see a pretty linear change in the contract you signed with the big customers?

好的。您能否給我們一些資訊——是否有一個季度——您是否檢查年度價格合約。是否有一個季度我們可能會看到價格環比發生較大變化，或者您是否傾向於看到與大客戶簽訂的合約發生相當線性的變化？

Frankly, I couldn't give you guidance to either of those. The discussion with large customers, it varies tremendously from customer to customer. And so I really couldn't give you guidance to the frequency or the timing of that. It really is depending on the customer at different times of the year. But not -- most customers do not directly link into a calendar year type of discussion, more on an ongoing project volume type of basis, design win type of basis. So I'm sorry, it is somewhat random. Actually, it will appear somewhat random through the year to an outsider.

坦白說，我無法就這兩方面給你指導。與大客戶的討論，每個客戶的情況都有很大差異。因此，我真的無法為您提供有關頻率或時間的指導。這確實取決於一年中不同時間的客戶。但事實並非如此——大多數客戶不會直接參與按日曆年進行的討論，而是更多地以正在進行的專案量、設計獲勝為基礎。所以很抱歉，這有點隨機。實際上，對局外人來說，一年中的各個時期都會顯得有些隨機。

Okay, but no one quarter where you may see a major reset in pricing, is I guess what I was just trying to drive at. And it doesn't sound like that's the case.

好的，但是沒有一個季度你可能會看到價格有重大調整，我想這就是我剛才想要表達的意思。但聽起來事實並非如此。

That generally is not the case. Now having said that, I cannot predict maybe there is an alignment at some point where this happens to be that way, but we have no particular insight into that and that's not generally the way it works out.

但通常情況並非如此。話雖如此，我無法預測在某個時候是否會出現這種情況，但我們對此沒有特別的見解，而且通常並非如此。

Okay. Second question on the gross margin. I just got back from Asia and it sounds like wafer pricing at the major foundries may be down as much as 10 to 20 percent in the first quarter. Wondering if you're seeing that kind of wafer cost decreases through e-Silicon (ph) and LSI Logic and whether that might bode well for gross margins to be at the higher end of the range in the first quarter?

好的。第二個問題關於毛利率。我剛從亞洲回來，聽起來主要代工廠的晶圓價格在第一季可能會下降 10% 到 20%。想知道您是否看到 e-Silicon (ph) 和 LSI Logic 的晶圓成本下降，以及這是否預示著第一季的毛利率將達到較高水平？

We're not going to give you our forward-looking views on our costs either, unfortunately. The semiconductor wafer market is variable. You get the various trends as you indicated, and some of them impact us in a timely matter manner and some don't. So I can't give you direct guidance on a forward-looking basis there. But if there are movements, of course, we take benefit of those. Like you, we similarly track the trends in those costs. But in terms of guidance, unfortunately, I cannot give you any specifics.

不幸的是，我們也不會向您提供我們對成本的前瞻性看法。半導體晶圓市場瞬息萬變。正如您所指出的，您會看到各種趨勢，其中一些會及時對我們產生影響，而有些則不會。所以我無法在此基礎上為您提供前瞻性的直接指導。但如果有動靜，我們當然會利用它。與您一樣，我們也同樣追蹤這些成本的趨勢。但就指導而言，很​​遺憾的是，我無法給你任何具體細節。

Okay. Next question -- can you give us an update or how you are tracking with the new products? Are you still on schedule?

好的。下一個問題—您能否向我們提供最新消息或您如何追蹤新產品？你還照計畫進行嗎？

As we have not announced publicly what that schedule is, the good news is publicly, we are not off schedules. What I will say is that our platforms typically get refreshed on a sort of 12 to 18 month cycle and our Photo Edition platform was launched just over 12 months ago. So keep posted.

由於我們尚未公開宣佈時間表，但好消息是，我們沒有偏離時間表。我想說的是，我們的平台通常以 12 到 18 個月的周期進行更新，而我們的照片版平台是在 12 個月前剛推出的。因此請繼續關注。

And last, just a clarification, Gary, on your comments about iGo. Did you say that that was a Flash Player win, or is that a hard drive player win?

最後，加里，我來澄清一下你對 iGo 的評論。您說這是 Flash Player 的勝利，還是硬碟的勝利？

I described it as a use of our audio platform. And typically as you know, our business today is centric around the hard drive business, and that in that case, is a 20-gig hard drive product.

我將其描述為我們音訊平台的用途。如您所知，我們今天的業務通常以硬碟業務為中心，在這種情況下，是 20GB 硬碟產品。

Okay. Can you say whether you have any wins to date, any announced product in a Flash-based player?

好的。您能否透露一下迄今為止你們在基於 Flash 的播放器方面是否取得了任何成果，是否有任何已發布的產品？

We will make announcements as they become appropriate and they are aligned with our customers' announcements as well.

我們將在適當的時候發佈公告，並且這些公告也將與我們客戶的公告保持一致。

Great, thanks, guys.

太好了，謝謝大家。

Shawn Slayton, SG Cowen.

肖恩·斯萊頓，SG 考恩。

Nice quarter you're posting here. It seems as if the R&D expectations for the current quarter may have some non-recurring components there. How should we look at R&D on an absolute basis after the first quarter? Are there mass set expenses in Q1 that we won't see in Q2? And also kind of related to that, can you speak to the strategy of how you're going to grow headcount, in what areas, maybe more towards the silicon side, or more towards the software side? Thanks.

您在這裡發布的內容很棒。看起來本季的研發預期可能包含一些非經常性成分。第一季之後，我們該如何絕對地看待研發？第一季是否存在一些在第二季不會出現的大額支出？另外與此相關的是，您能否談談您將如何增加員工數量的策略，在哪些領域增加員工數量，可能更多地傾向於矽片方面，還是更傾向於軟體方面？謝謝。

Maybe let me start with the latter part of the question. The plan to increase headcount is absolutely heavily balanced towards R&D. We have given guidance -- I've given guidance to staying flat on SG&A in Q1 over Q4. And it's not my policy actually to make forward-looking statements besides what is in our earnings release, so I'm not going to comment on Q2. But I think in general, how you want a look at our company, it's heavily R&D balanced. So we have, what I said, like -- more than three-quarters of our employees are engaged right now in strategic or current R&D activities. And that's how you should look at this company, in terms of growth and focus.

也許我應該從問題的後半部分開始。增加員工人數的計畫絕對主要著重於研發。我們已經給出了指導——我已經給出了指導，即第一季的銷售、一般及行政費用與第四季度持平。事實上，除了收益報告中的內容之外，我的政策並不發表前瞻性的陳述，所以我不會對第二季發表評論。但我認為，總的來說，無論你怎麼看待我們公司，它都是高度注重研發的。所以，正如我所說，我們有超過四分之三的員工目前從事策略或當前的研發活動。從成長和重點的角度來看，這就是你應該看待這家公司的方式。

I'll add, in terms of, give you some sense of focus. As you know, this company's built around a platform, as you know, which means that we invest both on the semiconductor firmware and software. So unlike probably many of our competitors, we do put significant effort on the firmware and software side. So overall, if you look to us as a company, we believe that is a significant investment and it has served us very well and we will continue to have a sort of balanced R&D effort across all of those three areas.

我想補充一點，從某種程度上來說，這會讓你更專注。如您所知，這家公司是圍繞著一個平台建立的，這意味著我們在半導體韌體和軟體上都進行了投資。因此，與我們的許多競爭對手不同，我們確實在韌體和軟體方面投入了大量精力。所以總的來說，如果你把我們看作一家公司，我們相信這是一項重大投資，它為我們帶來了很好的效益，我們將繼續在這三個領域進行平衡的研發工作。

Gary, I want to revisit the pricing discussion a little bit. If you don't want to talk in absolute terms, what are your expectations? Obviously, you're selling more than just silicon. What are your expectations for pricing trends for your offerings over the next several quarters? And maybe you can put that in the context of some of your peer companies and competitive offerings? Maybe help us understand this industry little bit. It's somewhat of a new industry, but if you could provide some context there, that would be great.

加里，我想稍微重新討論一下定價問題。如果您不想用絕對的術語來談論，您的期望是什麼？顯然，你銷售的不只是矽。您對未來幾季產品定價趨勢有何預期？也許您可以將其與一些同行公司和競爭產品進行比較？也許可以幫助我們稍微了解這個產業。這是一個新興行業，但如果您能提供一些背景信息，那就太好了。

Yes. The way that we generally look at this industry, as you said, it is a sub-segment of the consumer electronics space. So we have seen dramatic volume growth and continued improvements in integration and performance feature-add. Having said that, typically you should expect, and the way we look at that is on an individual SKU, you may see price declines on an annual basis of maybe 20 to 25 percent. And of course, it depends on SKU by SKU, but this is just to give you a sense of the market in general. And then overall on a blended ASP, i.e., when we introduce new products, we're generally able to sort of reset the pricing generally not back to the same point, but we're generally able to reset pricing because of the added value. And so overall, when you look at our portfolio, we believe that a blended ASP decline you should look at for the year, if you saw the 10 to 15 percent number, we think that is consistent with this type of growth in a consumer electronics market. So 20 to 25 percent on individual SKU. Then when you introduce new products and new features, you end up on a portfolio of around 10 to 15 percent.

是的。正如您所說，我們通常認為這個行業是消費電子領域的一個子領域。因此，我們看到了產量的顯著增長以及整合度和性能特性的持續改進。話雖如此，通常你應該預料到，從我們的角度來看，單一 SKU 的價格可能會以每年 20% 到 25% 的速度下降。當然，這取決於每個 SKU，但這只是為了讓您了解整個市場的情況。總體而言，在混合 ASP 上，即當我們推出新產品時，我們通常能夠重新設定價格，通常不會回到同一點，但我們通常能夠根據附加價值重新設定價格。因此，總體而言，當您查看我們的投資組合時，我們認為您應該關註今年的混合 ASP 下降情況，如果您看到 10% 到 15% 的數字，我們認為這與消費電子市場的這種增長類型是一致的。因此單一 SKU 的佔比為 20% 到 25%。然後，當您推出新產品和新功能時，您最終會獲得大約 10% 到 15% 的投資組合。

Okay, that's helpful. And then I guess in that context, can you just give us your view of the competitive landscape right now? Maybe are you seeing any new competitors over the last quarter or two and maybe talk about some of the new players maybe in Asia? Thanks.

好的，這很有幫助。那麼我想在這種背景下，您能否給我們談談您對當前競爭格局的看法？也許您在過去一兩個季度看到了一些新的競爭對手，也許可以談談亞洲的一些新參與者？謝謝。

From a competition point of view, the landscape is not changing dramatically here. We're garnishing off more than our fair share of the hard drive wins across the entire market. So that space is staying fairly consistent with the players in the market. I think what will be interesting as we go through 2005 and the way we look at the market is an interesting (indiscernible) will be as the Flash capacity starts to get into the ranges of our gigabytes, for the first time, that market starts to look attractive for us. And so that market plays to our strength of a very powerful chipset, powerful file and media management. So as we look at that market, that will introduce a new set of competitors and a new set of players. And that, again, I've indicated, we're looking at with quite healthy interest.

從競爭的角度來看，這裡的格局並沒有發生巨大的變化。我們在整個硬碟市場中贏得了超過應有的份額。因此，該空間與市場參與者保持相當一致。我認為，當我們度過 2005 年時，有趣的是，我們看待市場的方式是，有趣的（音訊難以辨認）是，隨著快閃記憶體容量開始進入千兆位元組的範圍，這個市場將首次開始對我們具有吸引力。因此，該市場可以發揮我們強大的晶片組、強大的文件和媒體管理的優勢。因此，當我們審視該市場時，我們會看到一群新的競爭對手和一群新的參與者。我再次指出，我們對此非常感興趣。

One last question. Gary, in the context of PortalPlayer, what things should we be paying attention to with regard to portable compressed audio, digital rights management? What factors in DRM influence PortalPlayer, and what do you guys care about, and what trends are you looking for in portable compressed DRM? Thanks.

最後一個問題。加里，在 PortalPlayer 的背景下，我們應該關注便攜式壓縮音訊、數位版權管理的哪些事項？ DRM 中的哪些因素會影響 PortalPlayer，你們關心什麼，以及你們在便攜式壓縮 DRM 中尋找什麼趨勢？謝謝。

From a compression standard point of view, there continue to be some innovations there. But essentially, the key underlying standard is MPEG 3 or ASC. It really produces a very solid rock bed. The DRMs themselves are getting well proven and stable. I think the interesting thing to watch in this market is will the way people buy music change over the next few years. Will a subscription model start to become more popular than the purchase model? And frankly, I'm not sure we know the answers to that. And the way that we're building our platform is to be able to support both those type of markets. But a subscription model where the device stores thousands and thousands of songs and you have a monthly fee versus the model today where you may be purchasing individuals songs, that we're frankly watching with significant interest. And we make sure that we have the right platforms and software applications to be able to serve that. So that would be probably the trend that we're looking at with interest, and I would suggest the market hasn't yet resolved either.

從壓縮標準的角度來看，那裡繼續有一些創新。但本質上，關鍵的底層標準是 MPEG 3 或 ASC。它確實形成了非常堅固的岩床。 DRM 本身已經得到充分驗證並且穩定。我認為這個市場中值得關注的有趣事情是未來幾年人們購買音樂的方式是否會改變。訂閱模式會變得比購買模式更受歡迎嗎？坦白說，我不確定我們是否知道這個問題的答案。我們建構平台的方式是為了能夠支援這兩種類型的市場。但是，與現在你可能只購買單首歌曲的模式相比，訂閱模式中設備會存儲成千上萬首歌曲，你每月需要支付一定費用，坦率地說，我們對此非常感興趣。我們確保我們擁有合適的平台和軟體應用程式來實現這一目標。所以這可能是我們感興趣關注的趨勢，而且我認為市場還沒有解決。

Thanks much, guys.

非常感謝大家。

Glenn Young, Smith Barney.

史密斯巴尼的格倫楊。

This is Craig Berger, sorry for the difficulties previously. A couple of questions. One on inventory, it looks like you guys were at about 6 days of inventory on a single point quarter basis exiting Q4, very much hand-to-mouth. What's your plan to be able to respond to customer upside requests, if those should arise in seasonally strong periods?

我是 Craig Berger，對之前遇到的困難深感抱歉。有幾個問題。第一個關於庫存的問題，看起來你們在第四季結束時，每季的庫存大約是 6 天，非常勉強糊口。如果在季節性旺季出現客戶上調要求，您有什麼計劃來回應這些要求？

I think the snapshot that you get there through the balance sheet is really a snapshot. This is not representative of our inventory policy. We're certainly targeting something that is higher than just 6 days of inventory. Now our model that we're operating in is where we only take finish goods, keep them, turn them around -- is certainly driving towards -- I don't want to call it just-in-time. But certainly, a low level, very cash flow oriented inventory model. Now 6 days is not my target. And again, I want to repeat, that's not representative of how the quarter looked. It is the snapshot at the end of December. I don't want to give you any details inside right now, how we want to drive this in the following months, but it's certainly going to be higher than 6 days.

我認為透過資產負債表獲得的快照確實是快照。這不代表我們的庫存政策。我們的目標當然是高於 6 天的庫存。現在，我們營運的模式是，我們只接收成品，保存它們，然後進行週轉——這肯定是在朝著——我不想稱之為準時制的方向發展。但可以肯定的是，這是一個低水準的、非常以現金流為導向的庫存模型。現在 6 天不是我的目標。我想再次重申，這並不代表本季的情況。這是十二月底的快照。我現在不想向你們透露任何細節，關於我們希望如何在接下來的幾個月裡推動這一進程，但肯定會高於 6 天。

Okay. Do you have any plans to move away from e-Silicon or LSI in the next year?

好的。您明年有離開 e-Silicon 或 LSI 的計劃嗎？

Both of those vendors have served us out, have -- they're serving us extremely well. They have very flexible business models and have worked very well with the foundries. So we're very satisfied with the support and the business model we're getting from those supplies. We of course always look at alternative supply models, and one of them would be a COTO (ph) direct engagement with the foundry. But we have made or announced no specific plans there. We're getting great support from those partners, but of course we will keep evaluating alternatives. Our volumes are now in the range where we have that flexibility, but we've made no announcements and are really able to say more in the investigative phase at this point.

這兩家供應商都為我們提供了服務，他們的服務非常好。他們的商業模式非常靈活，並且與代工廠合作得很好。因此，我們對這些供應所提供的支援和商業模式非常滿意。當然，我們一直在尋找替代的供應模式，其中之一就是 COTO (ph) 與代工廠的直接合作。但我們尚未制定或宣布任何具體計劃。我們得到了這些合作夥伴的大力支持，但當然我們會繼續評估其他選擇。我們的交易量現在處於具有靈活性的範圍內，但我們尚未發布任何公告，目前只能在調查階段透露更多資訊。

Is there a particular volume point at which becomes very worthwhile to interface with the foundries and OSAT guys on your own?

是否存在一個特定的量點，在這個量點上，與代工廠和 OSAT 人員進行單獨對接變得非常值得？

This is more of an industry metric. It's highly unscientific. But typically, people say around 10 million units a year gets the interest of the fabs themselves and also allows you to drive some efficiencies there. So that is a typical industry metric.

這更像是行業指標。這是非常不科學的。但通常來說，每年約 1,000 萬台的產量能夠引起晶圓廠的興趣，同時也能提高效率。這是一個典型的產業指標。

And I may have missed it, but have you guys provided a target for sort of what you think your units could be in '05?

我可能錯過了，但你們有沒有為你們認為你們的部隊在 2005 年能達到的目標設定一個目標？

No, we haven't. We avoid the ASP and units forward-looking targets.

沒有。我們避免 ASP 和單位前瞻性目標。

Great. And if we look at our your R&D which spiked up significantly in December, is there any way you can help us understand how much is related to ongoing headcount versus period NRE?

偉大的。如果我們看一下你們 12 月的研發支出大幅增加的情況，您能否幫助我們了解其中有多少與持續員工人數有關，有多少與期間 NRE 有關？

I can give you that color. It's basically almost split evenly.

我可以給你那種顏色。基本上是差不多均等分割的。

So the $1.4 million increase is split evenly between headcount and NREs?

那麼 140 萬美元的增幅是在員工人數和非房地產人員之間平均分配的嗎？

That's right.

這是正確的。

Okay, that's helpful. I guess my other question was just on gross margins. I think you guys have said your model was 41 to 44. Is that still the operating model?

好的，這很有幫助。我想我的另一個問題只是關於毛利率。我認為你們說過你們的模型是 41 到 44。這仍然是營運模型嗎？

It is the operating model, yes.

是的，這是營運模式。

And you guys aren't willing to provide any color within that range for Q1?

你們不願意為 Q1 提供該範圍內的任何顏色嗎？

No, not at this time.

不，目前還不行。

Okay, great. Thanks a lot guys.

好的，太好了。非常感謝大家。

Jason Pflaum, Thomas Weisel Partners.

賈森‧普夫勞姆，湯瑪斯‧韋塞爾合夥人。

Good afternoon. Maybe just to start, can you maybe describe the level of visibility you have into Q1, maybe discuss how much turns business is required to hit, say, the midpoint of your guidance?

午安.也許只是開始，您能否描述一下您對第一季的預見程度，也許討論一下需要多少次轉變才能達到您指導的中點？

Let me answer on the first part certainly, what's the visibility. We have a pretty good visibility overall with our customers. It comes from when you focus on the big players in the market, you have a certain level of revenue concentration, and you also get a little bit better relationship management there. So I think it's reasonable to say that our visibility into Q1 is very good, but we all know that things can change. Backlog orders, planning, data can change, can be pushed around. Now also take into consideration that when we give guidance, we give guidance to GAAP numbers. And we know that, based on our revenue recognition policy, there is a deferral that occurs at the last two to three weeks of the quarter so that the shipments that occur in the last two to three weeks are deferred. And so a change in the plan for maybe just a day or something was supposed to ship on a day, and this has come in a day earlier or is going out a day later, can certainly significantly impact the guidance. So whatever the visibility is, in terms of the shipments, there is another level of difficulty when we give guidance for GAAP purposes.

讓我先回答第一部分，可見性是什麼。我們與客戶的整體了解度相當高。這是因為，當你關注市場上的大公司時，你會擁有一定程度的收入集中度，你也會在那裡獲得更好的關係管理。因此，我認為可以合理地說，我們對第一季的預見性非常好，但我們都知道事情可能會改變。積壓訂單、計畫、數據可以改變，可以推來推去。現在也要考慮到，當我們給予指導時，我們給出的是針對 GAAP 數字的指導。我們知道，根據我們的收入確認政策，季度的最後兩到三週會出現延期，因此最後兩到三週發生的發貨會被延期。因此，計劃可能只是改變一天，或者原本應該在某一天發貨，而現在提前一天發貨或推遲一天發貨，這肯定會對指導產生重大影響。因此，無論出貨量的可見性如何，當我們為 GAAP 目的提供指引時，還有另一個難度等級。

And then just considering the linearity of Q1 as far as your plan goes, would you say it's somewhat back-end loaded?

然後，僅考慮 Q1 的線性，就您的計劃而言，您是否會說它有點後端加載？

I cannot comment on that yet at this time. I think it's too early to really look and give comment on how the quarter really shakes out, in terms of where the shipments occur.

我目前還不能對此發表評論。我認為現在就觀察並評論本季的發貨地點實際情況還為時過早。

Okay. And then maybe if you could talk a little bit about what you're seeing from some of your hard drive vendors that you work very closely with. Have the constraints out there largely subsided? If not, when would you expect supply to catch up with demand?

好的。然後，也許您可以談談您從一些與您密切合作的硬碟供應商那裡看到的情況。那裡的限制是否已經基本消除了？如果沒有，您預計什麼時候供應能夠趕上需求？

We do see the situation improving from where we sit. We still believe that the demand is outstripping the supply into the segment. And if we had to -- when we look at the analysis, we look more towards the second half of this year to be a time where you might have some more equilibrium. We still think that the demand is very strong and it could well be the second half of '05 before that demand reaches balance.

從目前情況來看，我們確實看到情況正在改善。我們仍然相信，該領域的需求超過了供應。如果我們必須這樣做的話——當我們進行分析時，我們會更傾向於今年下半年，因為那時你可能會獲得更多的平衡。我們仍認為需求非常強勁，可能要到2005年下半年需求才能達到平衡。

Okay. So the second half, it normalizes in your guys' view. I guess along those same lines, do you see from your customers much pent-up demand that I guess was not serviced in Q4 that could roll into Q1? And how much of that is planned into your Q1 guidance?

好的。所以在你們看來，下​​半場一切正常。我想，沿著同樣的思路，您是否看到客戶有很多被壓抑的需求，我猜這些需求在第四季度沒有得到滿足，但可能會延續到第一季？其中有多少內容已納入您的第一季指引中？

I'm not sure I can answer the question about the pent-up demand, but the guidance that we have given is significantly better than what you would expect in a normal, seasonal cycle in a year. Consumer electronics industry probably expects something going down like 30 percent. We got it down 10 to 20 percent from a very strong fourth quarter to not to forget this. So is this pent-up demand, or it is that part of that growth cycle that we're still in, it is hard to really say. But what I can reiterate here, we're absolutely excited about what we see in the first quarter and what we guided to.

我不確定我能否回答有關被壓抑的需求的問題，但我們給出的指導比一年中正常季節性週期的預期要好得多。消費性電子產業預計可能會下降 30% 左右。為了不忘記這一點，我們從非常強勁的第四季開始將其下降了 10% 到 20%。那麼，這是被壓抑的需求，還是我們仍處於成長週期的一部分，這很難說。但我可以在這裡重申的是，我們對第一季的業績和預期感到非常興奮。

Okay, terrific. Thanks a lot guys.

好的，太棒了。非常感謝大家。

Daniel Ernst, Hudson Square Research.

丹尼爾‧恩斯特（Daniel Ernst），哈德遜廣場研究公司（Hudson Square Research）。

Good afternoon, Gary and Svend. Thanks for taking the call. Three questions, if I might. First of all, if you could give us both a general sense of your pipeline for potential design wins in the first half of the year, and then more specifically, on the plays for sure (ph) download-enabled devices. I know at the consumer electronics show, Microsoft was pretty bullish about rapid expansion this year devices geared for that new technology, which if my math is correct, you're in 4 of 7 that are currently enabled for that. So there's a general sense of the pipeline, and also specifically on the price per share. And then the second question, if you could comment on what you're initially seeing on demand substitution (indiscernible) mini and how that might impact your business for the year? And then the last question, could you just give me the number on your NOL carryforward for the year? I think if I read the math right, we should be expecting 4 (ph) corporate tax rates in the second quarter.

下午好，加里和斯文德。謝謝您接聽電話。我可以問三個問題。首先，您能否向我們大致介紹一下今年上半年可能獲得設計勝利的管道，然後更具體地說明肯定（ph）可下載設備的播放情況。我知道在消費性電子展上，微軟對今年支援該項新技術的設備快速擴張非常看好，如果我的計算正確的話，目前 7 款設備中就有 4 款支援該項技術。因此，對管道有一個總體概念，並且具體對每股價格也有所了解。然後是第二個問題，您能否評論一下您最初看到的按需替代（音訊不清晰）迷你的情況以及這可能會對您今年的業務產生什麼影響？最後一個問題，您能告訴我今年的 NOL 結轉金額嗎？我想，如果我的計算正確的話，我們應該預期第二季的企業稅率為 4（ph）。

I'll pick up real quick on the third question. So it's a $6 million NOL that we're carrying forward into 2005 for federal purposes freely available. And we've disclosed in the prospectus that there is a lot more NOL available, but it is limited in use to $1.5 to $1.6 million per year. Does that answer your question?

我將很快回答第三個問題。因此，我們將把 600 萬美元的 NOL 結轉到 2005 年，供聯邦政府免費使用。我們在招股說明書中揭露，可用的淨經營貸款 (NOL) 要多得多，但實際使用額度限制在每年 150 萬美元至 160 萬美元。這回答了你的問題嗎？

Yes.

是的。

So let's stop back to the first question then, which you combined on the pipeline and play (indiscernible). On the pipeline view of our business, CS is always an important event for us, in terms of the start of a calendar year. That generally allows our customers to work with us and look at new models and do new model planning together.

那麼讓我們回到第一個問題，您將它與管道和播放結合起來（難以辨認）。從我們業務的管道角度來看，就一個日曆年的開始而言，CS 對我們來說始終是一個重要事件。這通常允許我們的客戶與我們合作，共同研究新模型並進行新模型規劃。

From a macro sense, what that really means is the heavy work and engagement goes on in the Q2 timeframe with really new designs that come out of CS not really appearing into the market for Q3 and Q4 which is the peak demand. So from a pipeline cycle, CS is an important primer of the pump for the Q3, Q4 timeframe. Having said that of course, other customers have their own -- have worked with us to maybe earlier in the cycle, have faster development plans, have different ways to springboard one product from another, and their product cycle will be completely dependent on their competitive positioning and how they release. So with my earlier comments, I wouldn't want to dismiss Q2 as a blank period. But CS certainly feeds Q3, Q4, and then the customer announcements themselves from various customers also come out in the spring timeframe as well.

從宏觀角度來看，這實際上意味著在第二季度期間需要進行大量工作和參與，而 CS 推出的真正新設計並沒有在第三季度和第四季度（需求高峰期）真正出現在市場上。因此，從管道週期來看，CS 是 Q3、Q4 時間範圍內泵浦的重要引子。當然，話雖如此，其他客戶也有自己的——可能在周期早期就與我們合作，有更快的開發計劃，有不同的方式來將一個產品從另一個產品中跳出來，他們的產品週期將完全取決於他們的競爭定位和發布方式。因此，根據我先前的評論，我不想將第二季視為一個空白期。但 CS 肯定會為第三季、第四季帶來影響，然後各個客戶的客戶公告也會在春季發布。

On the play for sure (ph) initiative, again, the beauty and power of the PortalPlayer platform with the power of the 2 CPU architecture, the strength of our firmware and software platform, means that sort of fairly complex but important innovations like play for sure, which need lots of horsepower and capabilities, absolutely match what we're good at. So we've been working very diligently on that program with both the Microsoft and a number of customers very closely. So yes, we're very supportive of the program. When our customers demand different types of applications and music services, we of course support them. So we're very supportive of that program.

對於 play for sure (ph) 計劃，PortalPlayer 平台的卓越性能和強大功能，加上 2 CPU 架構的強大功能，以及我們韌體和軟體平台的強大功能，意味著像 play for sure 這樣相當複雜但重要的創新，需要強大的動力和功能，完全符合我們的強項。因此，我們一直在與微軟和許多客戶密切合作進行該計劃。是的，我們非常支持該計劃。當我們的客戶需要不同類型的應用程式和音樂服務時，我們當然會支持他們。所以我們非常支持該計劃。

Let's move onto the second one, which was your question about demand and substitution. We're absolutely not going to dive into discussions of our customers' product and product mix, so we will avoid and we will not be answering those types of questions. But if I step back and instead maybe just look at the market and look at some of the market dynamics, all of this I think is a lot of this is about price points, judging the right price points of functionality, having products that get more and more users into using MP3 and AAC music we think is great overall and we think consumers will then start to grade up into more feature-rich products, which will resell in that market very strongly. So overall, anything that expands this market and gets more users using MP3 AAC we think is a great demand driver for the overall market.

讓我們討論第二個問題，也就是關於需求和替代的問題。我們絕對不會深入討論客戶的產品和產品組合，所以我們會避免並且不會回答這類問題。但是，如果我退一步，也許只是看看市場並看看一些市場動態，我認為所有這些都與價格點有關，判斷功能的正確價格點，擁有讓越來越多的用戶使用 MP3 和 AAC 音樂的產品，我們認為總體而言很棒，我們認為消費者將開始升級到功能更豐富的產品，這些產品將在該市場上非常暢銷。因此總體而言，我們認為，任何能夠擴大這個市場並吸引更多用戶使用 MP3 AAC 的東西，都是對整個市場的巨大需求驅動力。

Okay, fair enough. If I could just follow up on the first question on the pipeline. Coming out of CES, I understand from talking over the industry, there was a lot of new technology demoed by PortalPlayer unseen by the market. So I had the sense that the pipeline was pumped well, but your comments were a little bit vague, so it gave me a sense of how you feel in it. Right now, you are 80, 90 percent market share on hard disk drive players. How do you feel coming out of CES, that you will exit '05?

好吧，夠公平。如果我可以繼續回答有關管道的第一個問題。在 CES 展會上，我從業內人士的談話中了解到，PortalPlayer 展示了許多市場未曾見過的新技術。所以我感覺管道泵送得很好，但你的評論有點模糊，所以它讓我感覺到你對此的感受。目前，你們佔據了硬碟播放器 80% 到 90% 的市佔率。離開 CES 之後，對於 2005 年的退出您有何感想？

We feel very strong. The innovation that we've continued to deliver and execute on again -- having that combination of the firmware and excellent chip platform to build upon means that we deliver to our customers a whole new range of exciting applications time and time again. And so you're right. We have not yet disclosed these exciting new innovations in CES. Time will tell. We will be getting there soon. But that has fed our customers' product planning cycles very well and so we're very positive. They were very positive and we had an excellent CES.

我們感覺非常強大。我們不斷交付和執行的創新——擁有韌體和優秀晶片平台的組合意味著我們一次又一次地向客戶提供一系列全新的令人興奮的應用程式。所以你是對的。我們尚未在 CES 上披露這些令人興奮的新創新。時間會證明一切。我們很快就要到達那裡了。但這很好地滿足了我們客戶的產品規劃週期，因此我們非常樂觀。他們非常積極，我們舉辦了一場精彩的 CES。

Okay, I look forward to hearing about it.

好的，我期待聽到這個消息。

Andrew Neff, Bear Stearns.

貝爾斯登的安德魯·內夫。

I want to clarify one question or one that you raised before in terms of your mix of business, in terms of -- you said your largest customer you said dropped from 95 percent in September to the high 80s -- I'm sorry -- in September, the high 80s in December -- is that what you said?

我想澄清一個問題，或者說您之前就業務組合提出的一個問題，就…您說您最大的客戶從 9 月份的 95% 下降到 12 月份的 80% 多一點——對不起——是 9 月份，12 月份是 80% 多一點——您是這麼說的嗎？

That's what we said, yes.

是的，我們就是這麼說的。

Can you give any sense about as you have given your guidance of about 15 or 20 percent sequential decline, where your largest customer will be in March?

您預測三月您的銷售額將比去年同期下降 15% 或 20%，您能否透露三月的最大客戶在哪裡？

No, we haven't given anything. We haven't given that information and we won't do that, in terms of guidance.

不，我們什麼都沒給。就指導而言，我們尚未提供該信息，也不會這樣做。

Also, the guidance we gave was 10 to 20 percent. So just making sure we're on the same wavelength, yes.

此外，我們給出的指導是 10% 到 20%。所以只要確保我們意見一致，是的。

So in terms of your largest customer, would you, given the different directions things are going, is your goal to diversify your mix? Do you think that you're trying to ask the question different ways?

那麼，就您的最大客戶而言，考慮到事情發展的不同方向，您的目標是否是實現產品組合多樣化？您是否認為您正在嘗試以不同的方式提出問題？

Let's step back and look at the year, rather than the quarter. I think we have made it no particular secret. Of course over time as we develop new technologies and have new capabilities, we hope that customer concentration does become less pronounced. Having said that, we support our large customers incredibly well. So yes, in general, as we introduce new technologies and they start to impact adjacent markets, we think we'll see a natural diversification of our market share. That should not be opined directly therefore to the success of any particular MP3 supplier in the market. So just naturally as a company, we're looking to have new technologies that broaden our base. But again, Andy, we're going to be very careful of course to not divulge or give any forward-looking views that would be impactful to our large significant customers.

讓我們回顧一下今年的情況，而不是這個季度的情況。我想我們並沒有對此保密。當然，隨著時間的推移，隨著我們開發新技術並擁有新能力，我們希望客戶集中度會變得不那麼明顯。話雖如此，我們對大客戶的支援還是非常好的。所以是的，總的來說，當我們引入新技術並且它們開始影響鄰近市場時，我們認為我們會看到市場份額的自然多樣化。因此，這不應直接歸因於市場上任何特定 MP3 供應商的成功。因此，作為一家公司，我們自然而然地希望擁有能夠拓寬基礎的新技術。但是，安迪，我們當然會非常小心，不會洩漏或發表任何可能對我們的重要大客戶產生影響的前瞻性觀點。

I understand. Thank you very much.

我明白。非常感謝。

Quinn Bolton, Needham & Co.

奎因·博爾頓，尼德漢姆公司

Hi, guys. Just wanted to follow up on your question or your comments about seasonality. One, can you sort of lay out for us what you think season might be in a typical year, first quarter, second quarter, third quarter and fourth quarter? And then a second quick follow-up.

嗨，大家好。只是想跟進您的問題或有關季節性的評論。首先，您能否為我們描述一下您認為一年中典型的季度情況，第一季、第二季、第三季和第四季？然後是第二次快速跟進。

In a typically year, I would expect the first quarter to be probably somewhere 25 to 30 percent below the fourth quarter. And then the second quarter, maybe another drop of 10 percent over the first quarter. And then on the third and fourth, it's a little harder to predict because then it depends on what products are introduced. But there's a significant ramp from the second into the third quarter for us. So let me separate ourselves a little bit from the consumer space. Time will tell whether our strongest quarter is the third or the fourth, but both quarters in our internal planning are very strong quarters.

在典型的年份裡，我預計第一季的銷售額可能會比第四季低 25% 到 30%。第二季可能比第一季再下降 10%。至於第三和第四個，就有點難以預測了，因為這取決於推出的產品。但從第二季到第三季度，我們的成長速度明顯加快。因此，讓我將我們自己與消費者領域稍微分開。時間會證明我們最強勁的季度是第三季還是第四季度，但在我們的內部規劃中，這兩個季度都是非常強勁的季度。

The second question was just, when you commented about 2005 being potentially better than a seasonal year, was that really focused on the first quarter, or do you think that every quarter through the year has the potential to be better than seasonal?

第二個問題是，當您評論 2005 年可能比季節性年份更好時，這真的只關注第一季嗎，還是您認為全年每季都有可能比季節性更好？

Well, the comment was certainly focused with what we know and see right now, which is the first quarter. The visibility into the second quarter is certainly not as clear as our visibility in the first. But there is, in terms of planning, the second quarter might be a little better than the first if the trend of the first quarter just grows into the second.

嗯，評論當然集中在我們現在所知道和看到的情況，也就是第一季的情況。第二季的可見度肯定不如第一季的可見度那麼清晰。但從規劃上來說，如果第一季的趨勢延續到第二季​​度，那麼第二季可能會比第一季好一點。

Okay, great. Thank you.

好的，太好了。謝謝。

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude our Q&A session. I'll turn the conference back to Gary Johnson for closing remarks.

女士們、先生們，我們的問答環節到此結束。我將請加里·約翰遜在會議結束時致閉幕詞。

Thank you everyone for joining us today on our first call. Thank you very much for the support and great questions. We do plan to present at the Thomas Weisel Partners 2005 Tech Conference on February 9 and look forward to seeing many of you there. And with that, I'd like to thank you again and we will conclude this conference call.

感謝大家今天參加我們的第一次電話會議。非常感謝您的支持與提出的精彩問題。我們確實計劃於 2 月 9 日在 Thomas Weisel Partners 2005 技術大會上發表演講，並期待在那裡見到你們。最後，我想再次感謝大家，我們將結束本次電話會議。

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude our conference. We do appreciate your participation. You may disconnect at this time.

女士們、先生們，我們的會議到此結束。我們非常感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。