Report: Qualcomm led smartphone application processor market in 1H 2016

Qualcomm was the largest vendor of smartphone applications processors as competition ramped up during the first half of 2016, according to fresh data from Strategy Analytics.

The San Diego-based chip vendor claimed 39 percent of the worldwide smartphone application processor (AP) market, the firm said, followed by MediaTek (23 percent) and Apple (15 percent). Strategy Analytics estimated 64-bit APs accounted for two-thirds of all smartphone AP shipments during the first half of the year.

“Qualcomm maintained its smartphone AP market share leadership despite MediaTek’s strong inroads in 1H 2016,” said Sravan Kundojjala of Strategy Analytics in a prepared statement. “After a less successful 2015, Qualcomm continued to recover its flagship market share with the newly launched Snapdragon 820, which featured in several flagships including the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, LG G5, Xiaomi Mi 5, OnePlus 3 and others. Qualcomm’s mid-range Snapdragon 652, 650 and 400 series of chips also gained good traction during 1H 2016 and helped Qualcomm to maintain volume.”

The worldwide smartphone AP market grew 3 percent year-over-year in the first half of 2016, the firm said, reaching $10 billion during that time.

“HiSilicon, MediaTek, Samsung LSI and Spreadtrum all registered strong double-digit shipment growth in 1H 2016,” wrote Stuart Robinson, executive director of Strategy Analytics’ Handset Component Technologies service. Samsung LSI enjoyed the success of the Samsung Galaxy S7, while HiSilicon leveraged strong sales of Huawei’s high-end and mid-range phones. Meanwhile, MediaTek maintained its momentum with increased shipments of its LTE-integrated APs, and Spreadtrum continued to see demand for 3G APs.

Qualcomm also continued to dominate the worldwide cellular baseband processor market, although that segment declined 2 percent in the first half of 2016, according to Strategy Analytics. Qualcomm claimed a 50 percent share of all baseband revenues during the period, with MediaTek taking 23 percent and Samsung LSI accounting for 23 percent. LTE basebands continued to see “strong double-digit growth,” while demand for 2G and 3G basebands dropped sharply.

For more:
- see this Strategy Analytics web page

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