BARCELONA, Spain — Under its new wireless business management, NXP Semiconductors is hoping to bring clarity to the company's once sprawling wireless business strategy.

After joining NXP last March from Texas Instruments, Marc Cetto, executive vice president and general manager of NXP's business unit for mobile and personal, has made several tough decisions. NXP has already shed its cordless phone business. Also jettisoned were NXP's haphazard attempts to enter the multimedia co-processor market for high-end smart phones.

NXP's current efforts are focused on single-chip solutions for "mainstream multimedia phones that require no multimedia co-processors," said Cetto in an interview at the Mobile World Congress.

For "rock-bottom GSM to 3G handsets," Cetto said NXP offers single-chip cellular phone devices integrated with RF, baseband and a power management unit.

NXP also has prioritized its connectivity products. NXP "took a pause with WiFi and TV-on-mobile," said Cetto. Instead, the company's engineering resources are now directed at Bluetooth, GPS, USB and FM, all of which NXP views as having a high attach rate for mainstream mobile handsets. As for near-field communications and ultrawideband, Cetto said, "they are more long term."

When he joined NXP, Cetto said he recognized its R&D spending in the wireless business was only half of Texas Instruments' or Qualcomm's budgets.

Cetto laid out three new priorities: more aggressive development in cellular systems; a focus on mainstream multimedia features; and connectivity technologies with a higher attach rates.

Of the three, NXP has placed its biggest bet on the development of an LTE modem. NXP is this week demonstrating a multi-mode, programmable LTE modem that will be the basis of NXP's software-defined radio system.

Looking back, Cetto said NXP wasn't the first to offer a 3G modem. "Even with HSDPA, we were later than others," he noted. "But with LTE, we hope to be a part of the first group."