SigmaTel, the company claimed to be supplying Apple with controller chips for the rumoured iPod Flash player, upped its Q4 sales forecast by $5-10m, allegedly on the back of said controller sales.

The chip maker said it now expects quarterly revenues to fall between $60m and $65m, up from its previous forecast of $55-60m. If its new estimate comes close, SigmaTel will be able to report sequential revenue growth of 25-35 per cent.

GAAP net income is expected to be between $13.6m and $15m, the company added.

SigmaTel naturally enough didn't say that Apple was a customer, but it noted that the increase was due to "stronger than expected sales" of its D-Major portable audio SoCs into "leading portable digital audio player manufacturers".

It's certainly tempting to read that as an indirect reference to Apple, but don't forget that SigmaTel also recently won a big, two-year order from Rio running through Q4 and beyond. SigmaTel also sells audio chips to Creative, which last week declared a sales war on Apple. ®

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