News | March 3, 2010

LTE Chipset Makers Position For Long Term Endeavor

LTE is a great and truly evolutionary communications platform and LTE will become the dominant 4G technology. However, deployment of LTE will be gradual and protracted. Nevertheless, chipset manufacturers, such as Broadcom, Infineon and Qualcomm, have established LTE product development plans, according to market research firm In-Stat (http://email.in-stat.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/hBXiA0Ro2fL0K560DHgc0Ee). Further, market entrants, including companies such as Altair Semiconductor, Beceem, BitWave, Comsys, Sequans and Wavesat, are hoping the shift to LTE opens new opportunity.

"Leading 3G baseband chipsets providers will not necessarily keep their leadership in LTE," says Allen Nogee, In-Stat analyst. "The changes in platforms and technologies are disruptive enough to create major competitive shifts."

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

  • By 2013, the total value of global end-use device silicon will exceed US$2 billion, but still be early in the growth cycle.
  • Much of the success in silicon will be made in low-noise amplifiers, power amplification, analog-to-digital conversion, SAW filters, and battery-life.
  • LTE RF solutions will have to have transceiver diversity because many different channel spectra will have to be supported. Most devices entering the LTE market will be dual-mode.
  • The "LTE-dedicated" silicon BOM for mobile handsets will be slightly over US$125 in 2011 and decline by nearly 30% by 2013.

The research, "LTE Device Chipsets: The Workhorses of LTE" (#IN1004522WBB), covers the worldwide market for LTE silicon. It includes:

  • Examination of LTE end-use device architecture.
  • Analysis of the LTE ecosystem.
  • Overview of the LTE end-user chipset vendor landscape.
  • Chipset vendor profiles, including: Altair Semiconductor, BitWave Semiconductor, Comsys Mobile, Infineon, Qualcomm, Samsung, ST-Ericsson, and Wavesat.
  • Forecasts (2010–2013) for Total Value of LTE USB Dongle and External Clients Silicon; LTE Portable End-Devices Shipments, Excluding Handsets; LTE Embedded Chipset Silicon Bill of Materials in Portable End-Devices, Excluding Handsets; LTE Mobile Handset Silicon and BOM.

This research is part of In-Stat's Wireless Broadband service, which provides end-to-end coverage of the technologies and strategies for the development and deployment of future wireless technologies, such as HSPA, LTE, WiMAX and Enhanced Wireless DSL. The coverage includes the infrastructure, devices, services, and subscribers for wireless broadband.

SOURCE: In-Stat