MediaTek, a major IC design manufacturer, will hand over EPS 48 in 2023With an achievement of 51 yuan, Cai Lixing, vice chairman and chief executive officer, said that driven by the better-than-expected demand for mobile phones, the gross profit margin exceeded the high standard of the operating target range. New projects will continue to be promoted in 2024, and several of these businesses are expected to enter mass production by the end of 2025. Therefore, it is believed that 2024 will be the beginning of MediaTek's next growth phase.
Cai Lixing said that the mobile phone business revenue in the fourth quarter increased by 53% from the previous quarter, accounting for 64% of the company's revenue. The strong quarterly growth was driven by demand for 5G and 4G, as well as the successful ramp-up of the flagship Dimensity 9300 chip. For 2024, global smartphone shipments are expected to grow by a low-single-digit percentage to about 1.2 billion units, while 5G penetration will increase from 57%-59% (high 50s%) in 2023 to 61%-63% (low 60s%). It has also been observed that generative AI is not only driving the demand for mobile phone upgrades, but also driving the growth of the overall flagship and high-end mobile phone market. The continuous upgrade of global 5G and the expansion of the market share of flagship mobile phone chips will be an important driving force for the mobile phone business this year. In the first quarter of 2024, mobile phone revenue is expected to decline slightly from the previous quarter, following strong demand in the fourth quarter.
Then there is the smart device platform, which accounted for 30% of the company's revenue in the fourth quarter, down 19% from the previous quarter, mainly due to lower orders from TV customers after they created inventory ahead of schedule in the first half of 2023. Despite the weak overall consumer electronics demand in 2023, the 5G data chips, automotive electronics, and ASIC businesses continued to grow. We expect overall market demand to improve moderately in 2024, with the need for wireless and wired networking and computing equipment upgrades to be a significant growth driver.
In terms of computing devices, generative AI has begun to penetrate computing devices such as tablets, and MediaTek's multi-board computer customers have already used the Dimensity 9300 to build flagship tablets that support generative AI in the first quarter, and more models are expected to be introduced in the future. Finally, in terms of wireless and wired networking, MediaTek announced the start of Wi-Fi 7 certification in the Wi-Fi Alliance, and then announced the first batch of certified Wi-Fi 7 solutions in CES, and a number of customers have launched products using MediaTek WiFi 7, which leads the industry market position to enable MediaTek to continue to increase market share in high-end consumer routers, high-end notebooks, broadband devices, etc.
Overall, in the first quarter of 2024, growth from TVs, tablets and broadband is expected to offset the seasonal decline in other consumer electronics, and smart device platform revenue is expected to be about the same as the previous quarter. Next is the power management ICs, which increased revenue by 1% in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter and accounted for 6% of the company's revenue. Power management IC revenue for data centers grew strongly in the fourth quarter, while consumer electronics was flat. In 2024, we will continue to expand in new areas such as automotive and data centers to drive business growth. As for the first quarter of 2024, power management IC revenue is expected to decline from the previous quarter due to seasonality and the transition phase of some products.
In the first quarter of 2024, we expect revenue to grow strongly compared to the same period last year, mainly reflecting a more normalized inventory position compared to the same period last year, with a slight decline compared to the previous quarter. Gross margin is expected to stabilize within the current range. MediaTek expects first-quarter revenue to be 1:31 against the US dollar2 In the range of $121.8 billion to $129.6 billion, it will be about the same as the previous quarter to a decrease of 6%, and an increase of 27% to 35% from the same period last year. Operating margin is expected to be 47.0% ±1.5%, and the expense ratio is expected to be 28% 2%. In terms of gross margin, with our continued efforts in our product and customer portfolio, gross profit margin in 2024 is expected to remain within the range of our gross margin operating target in the first quarter.
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