Competition for high-growth mobile chip market escalating

SCOTTSDALE, USA: The battle for the fast-growing mobile semiconductor market will intensify in late 2009 with the introduction of new processors from each camp–ARM and x86, reports In-Stat.

Intel will introduce processors that will finally reduce the power consumption of the x86 architecture to acceptable levels for smartphones and other mobile devices.

Shortly after, many in the competing ARM camp, including Freescale, TI, and Samsung, will essentially be scaling up performance with multi-core processors that maintain similar power levels to existing single-core products.

“While both will offer competitive solutions, In-Stat does not anticipate quick changes in the current market mix; the x86 architecture dominates the computing applications, and the ARM architecture dominates cellular devices,” says Jim McGregor, In-Stat analyst.

“Mini-notebooks will be the primary battleground as the market starts seeing some crossover in 2011. However, both architectures are likely to co-exist as devices become more focused in features and usage models.”

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
* The Total Available Market (TAM) for merchant market mobile processors is projected to grow 22.3 percent through 2013.
* Integration of additional cores, graphics/multimedia, I/O, and baseband functionality will continue, particularly in handheld applications. Among smartphones, for example, 87 percent will feature mobile processors with integrated baseband functionality by 2013.
* The estimated value of the processing, graphics/multimedia, and baseband functions will all increase at double-digit growth rates over the next few years.