Wolfson promises profitable 2013

Of course, much will depend on how quickly customers ramp up new products, but the omens are good. Fourth-quarter sales of $56.1m was up 52 per cent on the year before and 85 per cent better than the first quarter. That turned a fourth-quarter loss of $2.9m in 2011 into a $1.5m underlying operating profit and narrowed the full-year deficit by almost two-thirds to $2.9m. And Wolfson reckons first-quarter sales in 2013 will be up 40 to 60 per cent to between $42m and $48m. It admits Samsung will make up half that - it was a third in 2012. Clearly, that's not ideal. Still, the company is supplying chips to most of the big manufacturers and for the new Blackberry Z10, too.

A sharp drop in gross margin to less than 44 per cent - blamed on a single high volume part with one customer - is disappointing. Wolfson predicts a return to a more traditional gross margin of around 48 per cent in the second half of 2013 as customers take up more expensive parts with extra functionality, but not before another big margin drop in the current quarter.