Today, Ericsson and ST Micro announced the breakup of the ST-Ericsson JV with ST-Ericsson taking over the 4G LTE multi-mode slim modem product line, while STMicro will oversee the existing products including legacy modem business, RF, Power Management and NovaThor integrated apps processors. Earlier, in April 2012, ST-Ericsson announced the transfer of its stand-alone apps processor R&D activity to ST Microelectronics. In addition, ST-Ericsson will put its connectivity business up for sale, but the company hasn’t identified any potential buyer yet for that business. We note that previously, several big names have left the baseband market including Analog Devices, EMP (Ericsson Mobile Platforms), Freescale, Infineon, NXP, and Texas Instruments among others. The baseband market requires intensive R&D for a company to remain competitive.

ST-Ericsson struggled since its formation in February 2009. The JV hasn’t been able to produce a single profitable quarter during its existence so far. Part of the JV’s struggles can be attributed to duplication among legacy products, transition to a new product roadmap and constant management changes. ST-Ericsson was formed by combining the modem assets of ST Microelectronics, EMP, NXP and T3G (TD-SCDMA consortium). Clearly, the JV struggled to integrate multiple companies and execute on its original plan to become a leading mobile chip company both in Europe and globally.

ST-Ericsson failed to establish itself as a true competitor to market leader Qualcomm over the last four years. ST-Ericsson got stuck in continuous product transitions to fill gaps in its product lines while the market moved on rapidly. The company lost momentum in the TD-SCDMA market and later lost significant revenue opportunities at Nokia. In 2012, ST-Ericsson saw some success with its excellent NovaThor U8500 dual-core chip at Sony and Samsung and the company shipped about 25 million NovaThor chips in 2012. However, this late success couldn’t bring ST-Ericsson to profitability, given its growing debt burden and legacy products. Based on our estimates ST-Ericsson ranked number-five in the baseband market in unit terms in 2012.

The latest breakup announcement jeopardises the relatively successful NovaThor “ModAp” product line of ST-Ericsson. Ericsson said it will solely focus on multi-mode 4G LTE slim modems in future, and will pursue licensing opportunities for its NovaThor baseband-integrated apps processor business.

Ericsson said the company wants to be the number three player in the slim modem market, and the company has given a 18-24 month time frame to achieve that. We think this self-imposed target is really aggressive unless the company has un-announced design-wins with Apple and Samsung. Currently, Qualcomm and Intel are the dominant 3G/4G multi-mode baseband players in the market. Ericsson said its LTE-Advanced slim modem M7450 will ramp in 1H 2014 and the successor product M7500 will ramp in 1H 2015.

To achieve the number three position, Ericsson would have to score iPhone or Galaxy S design-wins as the market for slim modems is relatively limited outside of Apple and Samsung. Based on Strategy Analytics estimates, baseband-integrated applications processors dominated the smartphone modem market with 62 percent unit share in Q3 2012. Ericsson could potentially pursue M2M, USB dongles, tablets and other non-handset markets as an opportunity to expand its slim modem business, but this would put it in direct competition with Intel and many small, innovative LTE baseband suppliers such as Sequans, Altair and GCT Semi.

We were somewhat surprised by the lack of buyers for ST-Ericsson’s modem business given ST-Ericsson’s 4G LTE products, which are production-ready. We have been saying for a while in our baseband tracker reports that the JV's concerning financial performance would eventually make it as a takeover target. We feel that the slim modem business is not a long-term fit for Ericsson. In retrospect, we think that Ericsson and ST Micro’s venture to create a European cellular chip powerhouse was always going to be a challenge, one that ultimately ended in failure, not just because of the difficulty of integrating disparate cultures from different companies, but also because the formation of ST-Ericsson coincided with a drastic decline in the joint-venture’s top customers, Nokia and Sony Ericsson (now Sony).

Sravan Kundojjala

NVIDIA today announced its new Tegra 4i processor. It is NVIDIA’s first high-performance, low power-consuming quad-core apps processor with an integrated LTE modem that is aimed squarely at the smartphone/superphone market.

On paper at least, the Tegra 4i out-performs Qualcomm's latest industry-leading chips in most apps processor measurements but, most importantly for NVIDIA, it also benefits from an integrated “soft-modem” that can be re-programmed over-the-air to support new frequencies and new air interfaces; something that most other modem vendors can currently only dream of. 

Finally, it’s designed to meet the demanding needs of nascent smartphone features like HDR video capture and FPS mobile gaming, yet its fifth “companion core” ensures extremely low power consumption in less demanding situations.

For a more detailed assessment of the T4i, as it might become known, read Sravan Kundojjala's blog post.

This is NVIDIA's second major chip announcement in two months; their first was the "Tegra 4" announced at CES in January, but the two chips are very different. While the Tegra 4 has quad-core R4 A15, 72 GPU cores and no modem, the Tegra 4i has quad-core R4 A9, 60 GPU cores and an integrated LTE soft modem. Both are high performance chips but the Tegra 4 is aimed at high-end non-cellular tablets and superphones, while the Tegra 4i is aimed at high-end smartphones and superphones. Both have NVIDIA's trademark low-power companion core too, of course.

Stuart Robinson

Today NVIDIA announced its first baseband-integrated applications processor Tegra 4i, which is the first significant product from its acquisition of soft modem design firm Icera in 2011. We have analysed NVIDIA’s acquisition of Icera in a separate blog post. Also, Strategy Analytics analysed Icera’s soft modem technology in an in-depth report.

The Tegra 4i product, designed in 28 nm, integrates 2.3 GHz quad-core R4 ARM Cortex-A9 processor with a companion power saving core, 60 core GPU and, most importantly, Icera multi-mode LTE modem (optimised version of Icera i500 stand-alone LTE baseband) functionality. The 2.3GHz quad-core R4 Cortex-A9 was jointly designed by NVIDIA and ARM.  NVIDIA claims that the Tegra 4i’s core size is half the size of its nearest quad-core LTE competitor (Qualcomm Snapdragon 800).

The Tegra 4i supports FDD-LTE, TD-LTE and also legacy air interfaces HSPA+/TD-SCDMA/EDGE/GPRS/GSM. The product also supports VoLTE standard and is expected to appear in commercial devices in Q4 2013.

With Tegra 4i, NVIDIA will join the elite LTE-integrated applications processor club. So far Qualcomm is the only mobile chip company that is shipping LTE applications processors in volume. Qualcomm’s 28 nm-based LTE Snapdragon processor MSM8960 gained strong traction in 2012 and featured in multiple LTE smartphone flagships. ST-Ericsson (L8540 and L8580) and Renesas (MP6530) also announced LTE applications processors that are expected to be commercially available by Q4 2013. Samsung, GCT Semiconductor, Sequans, Altair Semiconductor, Intel, Broadcom, Spreadtrum and Marvell have all announced / shpping slim LTE modems but haven’t yet announced LTE applications processors. MediaTek is also expected to field its first LTE applications processor in 2013-14 time frame.

The Tegra 4i is a step in the right direction for NVIDIA to be a significant player in the mobile processor market. Based on our estimates, NVIDIA has less than 1 percent share in the baseband market and less than 2 percent share in the smartphone applications processor market. However, NVIDIA maintained its lead in the non-iPad tablet market with a one-third share in tablet applications processors in Q3 2012.

We’ve been saying for a while that baseband-integration is necessary to capture bigger volume in the smartphone applications processor market. Based on our estimates, baseband-integrated applications processors accounted for 62 percent of total smartphone applications processors shipped in Q3 2012. The Tegra 4i product increases NVIDIA’s addressable market and focusing on LTE certainly makes sense.  We estimate that LTE basebands showed fastest growth among all air interface technologies and accounted for 18 percent of total cellular baseband revenue in 2012, up from just 2 percent in 2011.

Today NVIDIA also announced its “Phoenix” reference platform, which is based on Tegra 4i. Smartphones based on this reference platform are expected to pack 5-inch 1080p displays with 8mm thicknesss profile. Strategy Analytics believes that the low-to-mid range market is currently driven by reference designs. Companies including Qualcomm, MediaTek, Spreadtrum, Intel and Broadcom are already active with reference design programmes in order to promote their chipset offerings. NVIDIA needs to fight these companies to build share.

Overall, we’re impressed with NVIDIA’s ability to bring a leading-edge LTE applications processor to the market while some baseband companies are still trying to bring out their first LTE slim modem. The Tegra 4i is definitely a step in the right direction and certainly increases NVIDIA’s addressable market and also provides some competition to LTE market leader Qualcomm.

Sravan.K Kundojjala

Last month we have published our quarterly cellular baseband market share tracker update and based on our estimates the global cellular baseband processor market registered an impressive 15 percent year-over-year growth in 1H 2012 to reach $8.1 billion.

Here are some highlights from our quarterly cellular baseband market share tracker:

• Qualcomm, MediaTek, Intel, Broadcom and ST-Ericsson captured top-five revenue share rankings in the cellular baseband processor market in 1H 2012.
• Qualcomm led the cellular baseband market with 51 percent revenue share in the first half of 2012 on the strength of its leading position in CDMA, W-CDMA and LTE basebands. Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor momentum has significantly helped. Qualcomm's LTE basebands have been adopted by almost all top-tier handset manufacturers.
• MediaTek ranked number two with 12.8 percent revenue share in the cellular baseband market in 1H 2012 with the help of its strong 3G smartphone processor shipments. MediaTek made a significant progress in 3G basebands in 1H 2012.
• Intel grabbed the number three spot with 12.1 percent revenue share in the cellular baseband market in 1H 2012 as the company’s strong 2G baseband shipments significantly helped during the quarter. Intel also did well in the 3G baseband market and ranked number two in the W-CDMA baseband market in 1H 2012. Strategy Analytics believes Intel's upcoming first LTE baseband platform, XMM7060, has the potential to cut into Qualcomm's LTE baseband lead in future.
• Broadcom continued to improve its product-mix and ranked number four in the cellular baseband market in 1H 2012. Broadcom’s 3G baseband shipments showed over 600 percent year-over-year growth in 1H 2012.
• ST-Ericsson ranked number five as the company's new NovaThor baseband apps processors gained strong traction, but were unable to offset its legacy product revenue decline.
• Spreadtrum continued its progress and the company now counts tier-one OEMs such as HTC, Huawei, Lenovo and Samsung as its baseband customers. Strategy Analytics believes that Spreadtrum is well-positioned to further its success in 3G and 4G basebands.

Overall, the baseband market continues to show strength as baseband vendors shifted their focus to high margin 3G/4G smartphone applications processors. We expect LTE to drive significant growth for baseband vendors over the next few years.

Sravan Kundojjala

Today we published our full calendar year 2011 tablet apps processor market share numbers. Based on our estimates, the global tablet apps processor market registered a staggering 230 percent year-on-year growth in 2011.

With Apple expected to announce its iPad 3 product today, the tablet market is poised for accelerated growth in the coming quarters. We expect strong efforts from Amazon, Google and Microsoft will serve as key catalysts for the non-Apple tablet vendors in 2012.  The main component beneficiaries are likely to be existing leaders TI and NVIDIA and catch-up players Intel and Qualcomm.

Some key highlights from our global tablet apps processor quarterly market share tracker:

• Apple, Texas Instruments (TI), NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Samsung featured in our top-five tablet apps processor market share rankings.

• In terms of architecture split, ARM-based processors accounted for approximately 98 percent of total tablet apps processor shipments in 2011, by our estimates. Key x86 players Intel and AMD are both expected to participate actively in Android 4.0 and Windows 8 based tablets this year.

• Apple led the applications processor market with 59 percent shipment share in 2011 on the strength of strong global demand for its iPad 2 product. Apple faced strong competition from chip suppliers to Android-based tablets, particularly in the second half of 2011.

In the non-Apple tablet apps processor market, TI and NVIDIA grabbed the lion’s share in 2011. TI led the non-iPad tablet apps processor market with 35 percent share followed by NVIDIA with 34 percent share in 2011;

• TI’s tablet success can be attributed to its high-volume design-wins at Amazon (Kindle Fire) and Barnes & Noble (Nook).

• In contrast to the smartphone market, NVIDIA performed well in the tablet market, thanks to its design-wins at Acer, Asus, Samsung, Sony, LG, Motorola, Toshiba and others. NVIDIA is well positioned to capture further share in tablets with its quad-core Tegra 3 processor in 2012.

• The smartphone processor market leader Qualcomm and the PC processor market leader Intel both missed the tablet boat in 2011. We believe that Qualcomm is well-positioned to capture meaningful share in LTE tablets and Windows 8 tablets in 2012. Intel is also expected to ramp up its tablet activity in 2012 to defend its dominant share in Windows PCs.

• We think Broadcom, ST-Ericsson, MediaTek, Marvell and Renesas need to improve their tablet market focus in 2012 as these companies haven’t scored significant tablet design-wins so far.

Nine months after its acquisition of Icera, NVIDIA officially kicked off its cellular platform strategy by announcing the ZTE Mimosa X, which is the first phone to feature Icera’s ICE8065 HSPA+ baseband. Previously, we have analysed NVIDIA's Icera acquisition in a separate blog post.

NVIDIA is targeting the mainstream smartphone segment with its new cellular platform strategy. We believe that NVIDIA is pursuing a 'risky' strategy (multi-core only) and may have to sacrifice its margins to address the mainstream segment. NVIDIA's competitors Qualcomm, Broadcom, ST-Ericsson, MediaTek and Spreadtrum have single core baseband-integrated apps processors that can address the mainstream smartphone segment with better margins.

It's no secret that every major mobile chipset company is now pursuing a 'complete platform strategy' to capture more value per design-win and NVIDIA still lacks technology pieces such as connectivity ICs (WLAN, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS and FM radio). NVIDIA may have to go for further acquisitions to fill this connectivity chip portfolio gap. Market leaders Qualcomm and MediaTek also pursued acquisitions to fill their connectivity chip portfolio gap.

NVIDIA is currently focusing on the performance smartphone segment but this segment is already cornered by Apple, Samsung and Qualcomm. NVIDIA ranked number six in the smartphone CPU market in 2011, by our estimates. The company should consider releasing a single-core version of its Tegra 2 processor to compete effectively and to increase its addressable market, in our view. NVIDIA is expected to have baseband-integrated Tegra processors ready by end of this year which could potentially allow the company to participate aggressively in the sub-$150 smartphone segment. But NVIDIA should also consider low-cost ARM architectures such as Cortex-A5 to improve its volume market share.

Sravan Kundojjala

Client reading : Smartphone Apps Processor Market Share 2011: Qualcomm Takes the Lead in Units and Revenue ; NVIDIA-Icera Combination Creates a Credible Challenger to Qualcomm

Last week, we released our smartphone apps processor market share data. Based on our estimates, the smartphone apps processor market showed a strong 70 percent year-on-year growth to reach $7.9 billion in 2011.
 
Some key highlights from our 2011 global smartphone apps processor market share tracker:

• Qualcomm, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Marvell, Broadcom and NVIDIA grabbed the top-six smartphone apps processor revenue share rankings in 2011.

• For the first time, on an annual basis, Qualcomm topped the smartphone apps  processor market in unit terms in 2011, snatching the long-held crown from Texas Instruments. Qualcomm continued its revenue share lead in 2011 and captured approximately 50 percent revenue share. Qualcomm’s broad Snapdragon processor portfolio and excellent relationships with almost all top-tier smartphone vendors helped Qualcomm to gain market share during 2011.

• Broadcom stormed into the top-five rankings in 2011 for the first time, thanks to its high-volume Android design-wins. Broadcom’s apps processor shipments showed over 500 percent year-on-year growth in 2011. We believe that Broadcom can improve its market share further if it continues to execute well.

• New entrant NVIDIA performed well in its first year in smartphones and finished as the number six player in both unit terms and revenue terms in 2011. Despite its first mover advantage with dual-core processors, NVIDIA lost momentum in the second half of 2011.

• MediaTek showed significant improvement in 2011, thanks to its new HSPA smartphone processor MT6573. However, we believe that MediaTek has some catchup to do to compete effectively in the high-end market.

• ST-Ericsson struggled in 2011 and finished the year with less than 1 percent revenue share. The company couldn't capitalize on its renewed product portfolio in 2011. ST-Ericsson's outlook is challenged and the company needs to execute flawlessly this year to get back into the game. We believe that ST-Ericsson's Nova and NovaThor processors have the potential to be an attractive alternative to Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors and it all depends on ST-Ericsson's execution this year.

• Stand-alone applications processors accounted for 40 percent of total smartphone applications processor revenues in 2011 and out-grew baseband-integrated applications processors, thanks to Apple, Samsung, Texas Instruments, NVIDIA and Qualcomm.

Looking ahead, we believe that key market trends such as multi price-tier smartphones, emerging markets and new generation CPU and GPU technologies will create opportunities for smartphone apps processor vendors.

Sravan Kundojjala

Client reading: Smartphone Apps Processor Market Share 2011: Qualcomm Takes the Lead in Units and Revenue

This week we released our multi-core smartphone applications processors (AP) market share numbers and based on our estimates the multi-core smartphone AP market showed very strong 180 percent sequential growth in Q3 2011.

Some highlights from our multi-core smartphone AP quarterly market share tracker:

- Multi-core smartphone APs gained strong traction in Q3 2011 and accounted for almost one fourth of total smartphone APs shipped in Q3 2011. Strategy Analytics attributes this growth to strong holiday quarter demand for flagship multi-core smartphones from major smartphone manufacturers.

- Samsung topped the multi-core smartphone AP market with 57 percent unit shipment share in Q3 2011, followed by Qualcomm with 18 percent, Texas Instruments and NVIDIA.

- Despite being somewhat late to market with dual-core processors, Texas Instruments ranked number three and took 13 percent share in the multi-core smartphone AP market in Q3 2011, thanks to its high-profile design-wins.

- NVIDIA ranked number four with 10 percent unit share in the smartphone multi-core AP market in Q3 2011. NVIDIA lost key design-wins to TI at Motorola. Neverthless, we believe that NVIDIA did very well in the mobile processor market in its first year and despite being a newcomer scored multiple design-wins. We believe NVIDIA can carry forward some lessons learned in 2011 and the company should focus on high quality design-wins and product portfolio expansion to gain volume share.

- ST-Ericsson had just 1 percent unit shipment share in the multi-core smartphone AP market in Q3 2011, by our estimates. Strategy Analytics believes that ST-Ericsson's Nova and NovaThor processors have the potential to be an attractive alternative to Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors.

- We believe Broadcom, Marvell, Renesas and MediaTek have some catching up to do to capture market share in the multi-core smartphone AP market.

- In contrast to the single-core processor market, stand-alone APs dominated the multi-core smartphone AP market and accounted for 90 percent of total multi-core smartphone APs shipped in Q3 2011.

Strategy Analytics projects that multi-core APs will account for 17 percent of total smartphone APs shipped in 2011, up from almost negligible shipments in 2010. We expect Samsung, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and NVIDIA to be prime beneficiaries from this growth and to account for almost 100 percent of multi-core smartphone APs shipped in 2011.

We just published our latest tablet apps processor market tracker and calculate that the market registered a staggering 167 percent year-on-year growth in Q3 2011.

Some highlights from our quarterly tablet apps processor tracker:

- The non-iPad tablet applications processor market outgrew the iPad applications processor market in Q3 2011, almost quadrupling during the quarter.

- Apple led the tablet apps processor market with 54 percent unit shipment share in Q3 2011 on the strength of its content and developer ecosystem leadership in the tablet and smartphone markets.

- In the non-iPad tablet market, Texas Instruments (TI) took the leadership position with 47 percent unit shipment share with the help of high-profile design-wins.

- NVIDIA ranked number two in the non-iPad tablet apps processor market and showed 35 percent sequential growth in Q3 2011.

- Despite its leadership poisition in the smartphone market, Qualcomm is relatively a minor player in the tablet market. However, we expect the company to become a significant player with Windows 8 design-wins in 2012-13. Samsung also featured in our top-five non-iPad tablet apps processor rankings.

- In terms of architecture split, we estimate that ARM-based processors accounted for 98 percent of total tablet applications processors shipped in Q3 2011. Intel is currently focusing on the Ultrabook PC segment to tackle the tablet market threat and we believe it will take another 6-12 months for the company to outline its broad tablet strategy.

The tablet apps processor market is still in its nascent stage and we can expect to see a lot of future market dynamics as most tablet OEMs are still trying to come up with a profitable business model.

Last week we published our cellular baseband processor market share numbers for Q2 2011 and based on our estimates total baseband revenues jumped 17.5 percent to reach $3.63 billion in Q2 2011.

Here are some highlights from our Cellular Baseband Market Share Tracker:

• Qualcomm ranked number one with 42 percent revenue share on the strength of its broad baseband product portfolio, covering various interface technologies including GSM, CDMA, W-CDMA, HSPA+ and LTE. Qualcomm's multi-mode LTE baseband product, MDM9x00, performed well in Q2 2011 and we estimate that Qualcomm had close to one-third unit shipment share in the LTE baseband market in Q2 2011. We expect Qualcomm's upcoming LTE Snapdragon processors will further boost the company's share in LTE basebands. During the quarter Qualcomm's increased sales to smartphone vendors helped the company to sustain its average selling prices (ASPs).

• Intel ranked number two with 17 percent revenue share in Q2 2011 with the help of its relationships with top-tier handset manufacturers. Intel's 3G shipments accounted for over one-third of company's total baseband shipments in Q2 2011 and firmly established the company as a strong number two to Qualcomm. Intel's 21 Mbps HSPA+ platform, XMM6260, performed well and the company ramped up well with high-profile design-wins such as the Samsung Galaxy S II. We believe that the XMM6260 is a strong contender for the Apple iPhone 5 despite competition from Qualcomm.

• MediaTek, Texas Instruments and ST-Ericsson also featured in our top-five revenue share rankings in Q2 2011. MediaTek’s baseband revenues declined 14 percent in Q2 2011 compared to Q2 2010 due to competitive pressures from MStar and Spreadtrum and the company's subdued participation in the W-CDMA market. ST-Ericsson showed signs of improvements with new design-wins for its renewed product portfolio, but the complete recovery is not expected to happen until late 2012, in our view.

• Broadcom and Spreadtrum continue to be the fastest growing baseband companies and showed triple-digit unit shipment growth in Q2 2011. We believe that over the next few years both companies can further their market share by expanding into 3G / 4G markets. Marvell, Icera (NVIDIA) and VIA Telecom also made good progress in Q2 2011.

Overall, the baseband market held up well in Q2 2011 and we believe that powerful secular growth trends such as shifts to new radio technologies (HSPA+ and LTE) will continue to fuel the growth in the next few years.