Marvell's Vision and Long Term Commitment To China Positions Company For Next Phase Of Growth

SHANGHAI, Sept. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Marvell, a world leader in storage, communications, and consumer silicon solutions, today celebrates the success of its collaboration with China Mobile, the world's largest phone carrier, and its strategy to make early stage investments in the Chinese market.

Two years ago, when China Mobile began its mission to build an affordable open architecture smartphone based on Google's Android platform, Marvell was the only major silicon partner who committed to the program. Now, twenty four months later, last week's launch of China Mobile's new OPhone lineup not only has the mobile phone world buzzing, it has the global electronics industry watching the emergence of a significant new player in chip making.

Marvell, with approximately $3 billion in revenues in fiscal year 2009, has nearly 700 employees in its Shanghai campus and is aggressively planning to expand its operations in China. The company has focused on building its presence in the China market for most of its 14 year history, initially developing strong relationships with enterprise customers like Huawei and ZTE.

More recently Marvell has made inroads into the mobile and consumer space on the strength of its high performance, low power processors, which are well suited to the next generation of anywhere, everywhere always-on products. The company is focusing on emerging opportunities in netbooks, smartbooks, and other personal mobile devices that are experiencing significant growth in their respective categories.

Last week, Marvell celebrated the culmination of several years of investment in the China smartphone market with the introduction of the Marvell PXA920, the first commercially available single-chip solution, enabling mass market availability of TD-SCDMA smartphones. Developed by Marvell's research and development center in Shanghai, the PXA920 is a high performance, super integrated chipset that makes the new smartphones far more affordable than feature phones currently offered by China Mobile while providing enhanced performance versus current smartphones."The launch of the OPhone reflects the success of Marvell's long term commitment to China," said Weili Dai, Marvell's co-founder and vice president and general manager of the company's Consumer and Computing Business Unit "Marvell has a deep belief in China Mobile and in the China market, and Marvell is proud to help bring the TD-SCDMA standard to wider adoption in the marketplace."

With the first single-chip solution for TD-SCDMA, Marvell is raising the technology bar for the entire industry. When combined with China Mobile's OMS, Marvell believes the PXA920 will drive the rapid adoption of China's TD-SCDMA standard. Marvell is honored to contribute to the growth of China's 3G and 4G technology through our collaboration with China Mobile. Marvell is prepared to deepen its commitment in the years ahead.

For the Shanghai-born Dai, the launch of the OPhone in Beijing last Monday was a particularly personal accomplishment. "I am very proud of Marvell's contributions to the success of China's electronics industry. Every time I return to my homeland it's my mission to engage new partners and identify emerging opportunities that will ultimately benefit both Marvell and China."

Dai, who attended Fudan University High School and played semi-professional basketball as a teen in Shanghai, is the only woman in the world, and among very few Chinese-born engineers, to found a publicly traded semiconductor company. She sees strength in her Chinese roots. One big focus of opportunity for Marvell comes in the arena of green technology, an area where the company has carved out a global leadership position. "Today it is my passion to try to bridge my two homelands--China and the U.S.--and try to promote cooperation in creating smart energy policies for the future. If the world's two largest economies can work together on a shared energy plan, there is great hope for success in combating global climate change," she said.

Dai and her Marvell co-founder husband, Marvell Chairman, President and CEO Sehat Sutardja were in Beijing last week to celebrate the launch of the OPhone, as well as visit with customers, employees and government leaders in Shanghai and will attend the World Economic Forum "Summer Davos" session in Dalian later in the week. As two leaders of the joint US-China Green Energy Council, they will be speaking at the Forum on the subject of employing technology solutions to the energy and climate crises.