Strategy Analytics: Cellular Baseband Market Jumped 20 Percent

Vendors Intel, Broadcom and Spreadtrum Showed Strongest Growth

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Global cellular baseband revenue reached $13.2 billion in 2010, showing a strong 20 percent year-over-year growth, according to the latest report about vendor market share available from the Handset Component Technologies and RF and Wireless Components market research services of Strategy Analytics, “Baseband Market Share Tracker: Broadcom and Spreadtrum’s Growth Surged in 2010.”

“Through its acquisition of Infineon, Intel ranked fourth in the overall baseband market behind Qualcomm, MediaTek and Texas Instruments in 2010,” said Stuart Robinson, Director of the Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies service. He added, “Infineon has built very strong momentum through 2010. In the all important UMTS / W-CDMA sector, Intel is now already ranked third. We believe that Intel’s immediate task is to maintain this momentum by ramping up its HSPA+ platform XMM6260 in the handset and non-handset markets.”

According to Strategy Analytics, both Broadcom and Spreadtrum registered triple-digit growth in unit shipments and revenues in 2010. Broadcom benefited from its ramp ups at Nokia and Samsung in the second half of 2010. Spreadtrum gained from its international expansion.

Despite shipping the most cellular baseband unit shipments in 2010, MediaTek struggled to increase its revenue share due to intense price pressure from MStar Semiconductor and Spreadtrum, especially in the second half of 2010.

“Spreadtrum’s cellular baseband unit shipment growth surged in 2010. Strategy Analytics estimates that Spreadtrum shipped more basebands than Broadcom, Marvell and ST-Ericsson in the second half of 2010,” said Sravan Kundojjala, Senior Analyst. “We estimate that MediaTek and Spreadtrum together accounted for 45 percent of total GSM/GPRS/EDGE baseband shipments in 2010.”

ST-Ericsson’s market share losses are bottoming out and the company is well-positioned to improve its market share from the second half of 2011 with its upcoming W-CDMA design-wins at tier-one handset manufacturers.

This report shows that Qualcomm led the overall cellular baseband market with a 40% share in revenue terms in 2010, which is more than the combined revenue of the next three biggest vendors. This success is based on the strength of its dominant market position in the CDMA and W-CDMA baseband markets.

Mr. Robinson continued, “Strategy Analytics estimates that LTE baseband shipments accounted for less than one-tenth of one percent of total baseband shipments in 2010 and was dominated by single-mode OEM-branded solutions. Strategy Analytics believes that in the long-term, the LTE baseband market will be dominated by multi-mode solutions from merchant baseband vendors such as Qualcomm, ST-Ericsson, Icera, Intel, Renesas, Broadcom and Altair Semiconductor.”

Read more on mobile processor market dynamics on our blog http://sa-link.cc/ChipBlog

About Strategy Analytics

Strategy Analytics, Inc. provides timely and actionable market intelligence focused on opportunities and disruptive forces in the areas of Automotive Electronics and Entertainment, Broadband Connected Home, Mobile & Wireless Intelligent Systems and Virtual Worlds. Headquartered in Boston, MA, with offices in the UK, France, Germany, Japan, S. Korea and China, Strategy Analytics works with clients through annual multi-client services, management team workshops and custom consulting engagements. For more information, please visit http://www.strategyanalytics.com/

CONTACT:

Strategy Analytics, Inc.
Europe Contact:
Stuart Robinson, +44(0) 1908 423 637
srobinson@strategyanalytics.com
or
US Contact:
Christopher Taylor, +1 617-614-0706
ctaylor@strategyanalytics.com

KEYWORDS:   United States  North America  Massachusetts

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS:   Technology  Consumer Electronics  Data Management  Networks  Telecommunications  Other Technology  Mobile/Wireless

MEDIA:

Logo