Date: 20th Oct 2010

Baseband-integrated app. processors usage is growing in smartphones, says report

The latest report by Strategy Analytics relates semiconductors used in Smartphone reveals that baseband-integrated applications processors accounted for 70 percent of total applications processors shipped to smartphones in 1H 2010.

This Strategy Analytics report notes that the global applications processor market is heading in two directions; one is baseband-integrated applications processors to serve a broad market with a cost competitive solution, and the other is stand-alone applications processors to serve high-performance leading edge devices with support for the latest features. Both approaches have their own advantages and disadvantages. Baseband integration results in performance penalties as applications processor technology evolves at a faster rate than baseband technology. Baseband integration also reduces the flexibility of an applications processor, tying it to a particular air interface. However, Qualcomm and ST-Ericsson are responding to this challenge to address performance concerns against stand-alone applications processor vendors.

"Strategy Analytics estimates that baseband-integrated applications processors increased their share in smartphones from 28 percent in 2007 to almost 70 percent in 1H 2010 in unit terms. Qualcomm is driving the baseband-integrated applications processor market and is also closing the performance gap against stand-alone vendors such as Texas Instruments, NVIDIA and Samsung," commented Sravan Kundojjala, Senior Analyst. "By our estimates, Qualcomm's smartphone applications processor unit shipment share increased from just 3 percent in 2007 to 19 percent in 1H 2010."