Market analysis of all significant cellular handset and tablet ICs

USA: The markets for cellular handset and tablet chips grew 24 percent in 2012 to reach $59 billion (excluding memory).

Although digital basebands, application processors and com-processors (basebands paired with application processors) accounted for almost a third (31 percent) of this market, there are many other chips that serve this rapidly growing market, as illustrated in the graphic below.

The bigger companies dominate that third of the market offering little opportunity for new entrants, but there are many growth opportunities for other chip companies in the other two-thirds of the market. This report details the markets for those chips as well and explores the market dynamics and the vendors that serve the greater cellular terminal chip market. 2012 vendor market shares are provided for these market segments.

The report from Forward Concepts, USA, is an extensive (641-page) market study that covers virtually all of the chips that enable cellular handsets and media tablets. The report builds on our earlier study of the "core" cellular chips that define a cellular handsets and tablets (basebands, application processors, RF transceivers, power amplifiers and power management chips). This expanded report provides 2012 vendor market shares for virtually every cellphone chip type and forecasts units, ASPs and revenues for them through 2017.

Of course, most interest is now about 4G cellular, especially in the form of LTE (Long Term Evolution). We highlight the currently-available LTE chips and many of the handsets that employ them at the beginning of 2013.