Telecom Lead Asia: Qualcomm has grabbed 59 percent cellular baseband market share in the first quarter of 2013.
Intel is in the second position with 12 percent revenue share, while MediaTek has 10 percent share.
Strategy Analytics on Monday said the global cellular baseband processor market rose 18.5 percent year-on-year in Q1 2013 to reach $4.6 billion.
Qualcomm, Intel, MediaTek, ST-Ericsson, and Spreadtrum captured the top-five revenue share ranking positions in the cellular baseband processor market in Q1 2013, according to Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies (HCT) service report.
Qualcomm’s share of the cellular baseband market increased to 59 percent in Q1 2013 as the company capitalized on its early-mover advantage in LTE basebands.
Strategy Analytics estimates that Qualcomm captured an unprecedented 97 percent revenue share in the LTE baseband market in Q1 2013, thanks to Qualcomm’s strong relationships with almost all top-tier global handset vendors.
Strategy Analytics says low-cost 2G baseband specialists MediaTek, RDA Microelectronics and Spreadtrum together captured over one-third of unit shipment share in Q1 2013.
These companies have the potential to continue to grow share in the cut-throat baseband market, competing in top-tier phones with the leading multi-national baseband vendors for design-wins.
The market research firm also said the global cellular baseband market entered a new growth cycle thanks to the uptake of LTE in smartphones, emerging markets and non-handset mobile devices.
Qualcomm and Samsung face increasing competition in LTE from Intel, Broadcom and several small LTE baseband vendors including Sequans, Altair, GCT Semiconductor and u-Blox, however, the rapid growth of LTE should raise all boats.
