Dual-core processors power nearly 20 percent of smartphones in 2011

BOSTON, USA: Dual-core processors, which power ultra high-end smartphones, gained strong traction in 2011, accounting for nearly 20 percent of total smartphone applications processors shipped, according to, “Smartphone Multi-Core Apps Processor Market Share: Samsung Leads with 60 Percent Volume Share in 2011,” from the Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies (HCT) service.

This Strategy Analytics research shows that Samsung led the dual-core smartphone applications processor market in 2011, with 60 percent volume share, followed by Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and NVIDIA. Samsung’s success in dual-core processors can be attributed to its strong sales at Apple and in Samsung’s own Mobile Handset Division.

Stand-alone applications processors accounted for 90 percent of total dual-cores shipped in 2011. Single-core applications processors are much more likely to be integrated—72 percent of total single-core processor chips shipped were integrated with baseband applications processors in 2011.

Sravan Kundojjala, senior analyst, commented: “Strategy Analytics would advise NVIDIA to focus on high volume tier-one design-wins in 2012 in order to maintain its first-mover advantage with quad-core processors. NVIDIA, whose Tegra 2 smartphone shipments declined 8 percent at the end of 2011--compared to shipments in the first half of the year -- lost momentum, despite being early to market with dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processors.”

Stuart Robinson, director of Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies service, said: “Qualcomm captured 16 percent volume share in the dual-core smartphone applications processor market in 2011 on the strength of its dual-core Snapdragon applications processor products MSM8x60 and APQ8060. Strategy Analytics believes that Qualcomm is well-positioned to make significant share gains in 2012 with the help of its LTE-integrated dual-core Snapdragon processor MSM8960.”

Kundojjala continued, “Strategy Analytics anticipates dual-core applications processor penetration into mainstream smartphones will accelerate through 2012 and into 2013, and new ARM architectures such as Cortex-A5 will help dual-core penetrate entry-level smartphones at the start of 2013.”