With the emergence of wireless-broadband standard HSPA this year, the cellular-phone industry will begin to see the displacement of WCDMA and HSDPA. Next year, Long Term Evolution (LTE) products will debut--first as data cards and dongles. According to a study from Forward Concepts called, "Cellular Handset & Chip Markets '09," LTE handsets will reach 56 million units in 2013 for a compound growth rate of 262 percent. Among other key findings, the smartphone market is driving the introduction of peripherals that support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and FM radio on a single chip. There also is a clear trend toward bundling application processors with digital basebands--either on a single die or in a multichip package.
This study gauges the performance of the top 53 handset vendors while ranking their 2008 market shares. It also provides detailed forecasts by technology and global region of handsets, subscribers, and cellular-handset chips. According to Will Strauss, Forward Concepts' President and Editor of the report, "QUALCOMM continues to dominate the cell-phone chip market, but ST-Ericsson is expected to displace Texas Instruments for the number-two spot in 2009. Infineon is not far behind and with recent new financing, their future appears brighter now. With new peripherals and features being continually added, there are opportunities for smaller vendors to target new chip types to get their piece of the market."