Chipset vendor Inside Secure has reported a near 70 per cent fall in revenue from its NFC business in the first quarter.

The French company said revenues in the NFC unit fell to $4.5 million in the first three months of 2013 compared to $14.3 million in the same period last year, a drop of 68 per cent.

Back in March, Inside Secure cited difficulties experienced by major clients, principally BlackBerry, to explain a fall in revenue from its NFC business for full year 2012.

It is now advancing similar explanations for its first-quarter problems: BlackBerry and its subcontractors mainly used existing inventories in the period, said the firm, rather than restocking. “The backlog for the second quarter of 2013, however, is showing growth”, it said.

Revenue from new customers was not sufficient to make up for this situation. The company pointed to other customers such as Intel which has started to ship its first volume microcontrollers in ultrabooks and laptops.

Overall, the company reported flat quarterly revenues at $34 million.

Remy de Tonnac (pictured), the company’s CEO, said back in March that the difficulties faced by BlackBerry had led Inside Secure to refocus its business, as well as adapt organisation and cost structure.

As a result, the company is planning 60 redundancies in its international operations during the second and third quarters of 2013. It is also planning to make 25 people redundant in France.