Wireless-Chip Market Outpaced Wireline-Chip Market in 2007 Says The Linley Group
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwire - April 21, 2008) - Growing adoption of 3G technologies and
feature-rich cell-phone chips led to a 13% increase in sales of cellular
baseband processors in 2007, according to The Linley Group. Sales of
networking chips, in contrast, declined by about 1% during the same period
according to the company's latest report, "Communications Silicon Market
Share 2007." The slowdown in wired-communications chips is also reflected
in the FPGA market as sales of FPGAs for communications systems declined
7%.
The Linley Group attributes the decline in part to a 20% drop in sales of
DSL ICs. Even as the number of DSL subscribers rose worldwide, price
erosion and revised inventory policies forced chip revenue down. Infineon
emerged as the top supplier of DSL ICs through its acquisition of the
languishing DSL business of Texas Instruments, overtaking both Broadcom and
Conexant in DSL and becoming the second-largest supplier of
wireline-communications chips overall. Broadcom remains by far the largest
wired-comm chip supplier, eking out modest growth even as total industry
revenue declined and the company lost share in Gigabit Ethernet
application-specific standard products (ASSPs).
Total sales of Ethernet ASSPs increased 6% in 2007, propelled by strong
growth in revenue from Gigabit Ethernet switches, where smaller vendors
such as Marvell and Vitesse chipped away at the share of market-leader
Broadcom. Broadcom also gave up share in GbE clients as Intel attacked at
the high-end and low-cost suppliers such as Realtek and Atheros opened up
the consumer market.
In the $250 million network-processor (NPU) market, Intel was the top
supplier, experiencing significant growth as sales of systems using its
latest NPU designs increased. LSI, which acquired Agere in 2007, grabbed
second place in the rankings. Growing faster than Intel, 10 Gigabit
specialist EZchip climbed four places in the rankings, to just behind
third-ranked access-network specialist Wintegra.
Qualcomm overtook Texas Instruments as the leading baseband-processor
supplier in revenue terms. Qualcomm benefited from rapid growth in WCDMA
shipments on top of its large CDMA business. While maintaining a strong
position at handset-leader Nokia, TI was hurt by share losses at Sony
Ericsson. Taiwanese tiger MediaTek continued its tear, growing
baseband-processor revenue more than 80% in 2007 to overtake struggling
Freescale as the third-ranked supplier.
"After years of relative stability in wireless market-share rankings, a
reshuffling occurred in 2007," said Linley Gwennap, Principal Analyst, The
Linley Group. "More change is under way in 2008 as MediaTek completes its
acquisition of the cellular business of Analog Devices, ST and NXP form
their joint-venture, and smaller suppliers take on the more established
companies."
Details are available in "Communications Silicon Market Share 2007" a
report released today by The Linley Group, the leading provider of
independent analysis of the communications-silicon industry. It provides
market-share information for four categories of mobile and wireless chips,
more than fifteen categories of wired communications products, FPGAs, and
embedded processors. http://www.linleygroup.com/Reports/mn_guide.html
About The Linley Group
The Linley Group, the leading provider of independent technology analysis
for networking, communications, and consumer electronics semiconductors,
covers emerging areas such as high-speed embedded processors, Gigabit and
10G Ethernet, mobile communications processors, and more. The company
provides in-depth technology reports and interactive seminars as well as
strategic consulting services tailored to the individual client. To get
free access to The Linley Group's analysis of recent news and events in
these markets, subscribe to our e-mail newsletters. More information about
The Linley Group is available at http://www.linleygroup.com.
Contact Information: Contact:
Candace Doyle
Company: The Linley Group
Phone: 408.370.7631
Email:
Web site: www.linleygroup.com