Qualcomm and Samsung hold >50% of share in mobile-phone IC market

IHS finds Qualcomm in 2012 reigned supreme with 31 percent market revenue share and Samsung holds 21 percent share in the market for application-specific mobile handset core ICs like baseband and radio-frequency semiconductors. Together they hold more than half of the market by revenue. Qualcomm is holding the top position since 2007 and has increased its lead by 8 percentage points during the period, according to IHS. The next eight vendors in the Top 10 accounts for another 34 percentage points of share. The other vendors among the leaders were, in descending order, MediaTek, Intel, Skyworks, Texas Instruments, ST-Ericsson, Renesas, Spreadtrum and Broadcom. The Top 10 enjoyed a collective 86 percent share of the market. “As smartphones and the next-generation wireless standard known as 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) have gained popularity, the corresponding influences from both forces have created paradigm shifts that transformed competition in the mobile handset core IC market,” said Brad Shaffer, analyst for consumer & communications at IHS. “The arrival of Apple Inc.’s iPhone five years ago changed the game and paved the way for the current market rankings. This change is dramatically illustrated by looking at the major differences in the cellphone core IC rankings from 2007 to 2012. The companies that benefited from the shift in market orientation rose to dom...