800 million smartphones shipped in 2013: lower than competitors' estimates

MESA, USA: Forward Concepts, a leader in DSP and wireless market research is proud to announce the publication of its newest report, "Comprehensive Cellphone & Tablet Chip Markets '14." The 478-page report provides a detailed market analysis of all significant cellular handset and tablet ICs from modems, application processors and RF transceivers to power amplifiers, and much more.

Forecasts are provided (2012-2018) for both revenue and units for all covered products (Not including memory). Market shares for all vendors for each product type are included and 2014 market prospects for key vendors are discussed.

According to the principal author of the report, Carter L. Horney: "Our forecast model uses ongoing shifts in OEM share, technology (e.g., transition to integrated Wi-Fi) and product categories (e.g., tablet computers, after-market modems, MiFi hotspots) to forecast which chip suppliers will benefit and which will not."

In addition to modems, apps processors and RF components, the report also provides detailed market analysis many other cellphone and tablet chip types, including: Bluetooth, camera imagers, GPS, MEMS sensors, MEMS microphones, NFC, power management, touch controllers and Wi-Fi.

In this unique report, baseband processors are forecast by air interface, application processors by integration level and OS, and connectivity chips by combo category. Our methodology combines tracking OEM product shipments (non-smartphones, smartphones, tablets) and 2/3/4G consumption across 10 global regions and 30 OEM suppliers, and that's in addition to interviews, and bottom-up vs. top-down revenue checks at chip and OEM levels.

Forward Concepts' president, Will Strauss, said, "We believe that this publication is the most comprehensive and detailed market report on cellular chips on the planet."

Some 2013 market observations in the report:

* Smartphone consumption reached 51 percent of the cellphone market (800 million units), followed by mid-range, budget and feature phones at 24 percent, 13 percent and 12 percent shares, respectively.

* 63 percent of the cellular-connected devices have a 3G or 3G/4G modem inside. 3G/4G LTE and TD-SCDMA basebands grew rapidly to 13 percent and 14 percent of those modems, respectively.

* Baseband processors grew to $18 billion in 2013, with com-processors, thin modems and ultra-low-cost (ULC) revenues with 49 percent, 34 percent and 17 percent market shares, respectively.

* Qualcomm and Marvell will dominate the 3G/4G TD-LTE/SCDMA com-processor market in 2014.

* Samsung has made a significant movement away from the standalone application processor to the integrated Qualcomm quad-core com-processor on all of its LTE smartphones.

* MediaTek, the second largest supplier of 3G com-processors will surpass Qualcomm in the China market in 2014. Qualcomm has no answer for the low-cost 3G Octa MT6592 until 3Q14 when they begin shipping their 64-bit CPU lineup.

* Spreadtrum's single-core SC8810 com-processor captured the majority of 3G TD-SCDMA OEM sockets in 2013 with its $33 BOM cost while MediaTek ran away with the dual- and quad-core TD-SCDMA sockets.

* We expect the fixed Mi-Fi VoLTE router market to grow quickly among the mature 4G operators, reducing demand for fixed telephone and fixed broadband services- providing increased opportunity for the pure-play LTE modem suppliers such as Altair, GCT, Sequans and others. For this, the Cat4 movement has real value.

* Intel, the second leading supplier of 3G thin modems in 2013 - will likely become the second leading supplier of 3G/4G thin modems in 2014. Their focus will be on winning 3G/4G notebook and tablet orders.

* 2013 was the first year that application processors surpassed 1 billion units with 44.5 percent of them as standalone units. We expect standalone consumption among smartphones to decline further in 2014 as more become part of com-processors.

* Standalone processor newcomers, Allwinner, Amlogic, Rockchip, Via and Marvell grew rapidly, collectively capturing over 20 percent of the low-cost Android tablets in 2013.

* MediaTek was the first to announce the availability of a five-in-one combo device with Wi-Fi acn, BT4.0, FM, GLONASS and NFC.

* Among sensors, there was integration of the gyro and accelerometer sensors with InvenSense challenging STMicroelectronics for integrated gyro market share.

* Synaptics & Fingerprint Card (and licensee CrucialTec) will benefit mostly from the fast adoption rate of biometric sensors in 2014.

* Proximity gesture devices have emerged from Maxim, integrating RGB color detection with accurate proximity sensing.