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Spreadtrum flourishes as $50 smartphones boom
Junko Yoshida
3/18/2013 2:01 PM EDT
SHANGHAI – The story of the mobile market globally in 2012 was the big surge in demand for smartphones in China. The big beneficiaries among smartphone chip suppliers were MediaTek and Spreadtrum.
The story of 2013 will continue to be the growing smartphone market, as the trend spreading far and wide, into India and Southeast Asia.
Leo Li, Chairman and CEO of Spreadtrum, told EE Times Monday (March 18), “We are so busy. We can’t keep up with the growing smartphone demand.” This might sound like a gratuitous remark, but Li actually means it.
Earlier this year, market research firm Canalys predicted that China will cement its lead as the world’s largest smartphone market in 2013, with the nation expected to sell 240 million smartphones, roughly one third of global shipments. In contrast, the United States, the world's second-largest smartphone market, is likely to absorb 125 million, the market research firm said.
However, the hot smartphones in China, India and elsewhere in Southeast Asia are different from those sold in the United States. U.S. models are “heavily influenced by Apple’s iPhones and Samsung’s Galaxy S3,” and their smartphone market is “much more mature and saturated,” explained Spreadtrum’s Li. In contrast, handsets purchased by China’s first-time smartphone buyers are cheaper, usually under $50 per handset, and feature typically a 3.5-inch screen. They run on an Android 2.1 operating system.
The story is similar in India, too. Eighty percent of handsets sold by Micromax, India’s leading mobile handset brand [in which Spreadtrum invested), are the low-end smartphones designed to work in India’s EDGE network, Li said.
As global smartphone chip suppliers like ST-Ericsson, Renesas Mobile, Marvell and Nvidia struggle to break into the high-end smartphone market dominated by Qualcomm and Apple, Spreadtrum and MediaTek, are having a field day in sharing what appears to be a wide-open mid- to low-end smartphone segment.
Notwithstanding the price, such low-end smartphones are nothing to be sneered at. Li touted their usefulness and high performance. Good examples are Spreadtrum’s 1GHz Android low-cost smartphone platforms such as SC8810 (TD-SCDMA) and SC6820 (EDGE/GPRS/GSM), said Li. While both are based on an integrated baseband/apps processor using a single ARM Cortex A5 core, they can drive low-end smartphones with performance as good as Apple’s iPhone 4, he claimed.
Wait. Is Li really talking about his single-core apps/baseband processor?
Next: On par with iPhone 4?
The story of 2013 will continue to be the growing smartphone market, as the trend spreading far and wide, into India and Southeast Asia.
Leo Li, Chairman and CEO of Spreadtrum, told EE Times Monday (March 18), “We are so busy. We can’t keep up with the growing smartphone demand.” This might sound like a gratuitous remark, but Li actually means it.
Earlier this year, market research firm Canalys predicted that China will cement its lead as the world’s largest smartphone market in 2013, with the nation expected to sell 240 million smartphones, roughly one third of global shipments. In contrast, the United States, the world's second-largest smartphone market, is likely to absorb 125 million, the market research firm said.
However, the hot smartphones in China, India and elsewhere in Southeast Asia are different from those sold in the United States. U.S. models are “heavily influenced by Apple’s iPhones and Samsung’s Galaxy S3,” and their smartphone market is “much more mature and saturated,” explained Spreadtrum’s Li. In contrast, handsets purchased by China’s first-time smartphone buyers are cheaper, usually under $50 per handset, and feature typically a 3.5-inch screen. They run on an Android 2.1 operating system.
The story is similar in India, too. Eighty percent of handsets sold by Micromax, India’s leading mobile handset brand [in which Spreadtrum invested), are the low-end smartphones designed to work in India’s EDGE network, Li said.
Source: Canalys
As global smartphone chip suppliers like ST-Ericsson, Renesas Mobile, Marvell and Nvidia struggle to break into the high-end smartphone market dominated by Qualcomm and Apple, Spreadtrum and MediaTek, are having a field day in sharing what appears to be a wide-open mid- to low-end smartphone segment.
Notwithstanding the price, such low-end smartphones are nothing to be sneered at. Li touted their usefulness and high performance. Good examples are Spreadtrum’s 1GHz Android low-cost smartphone platforms such as SC8810 (TD-SCDMA) and SC6820 (EDGE/GPRS/GSM), said Li. While both are based on an integrated baseband/apps processor using a single ARM Cortex A5 core, they can drive low-end smartphones with performance as good as Apple’s iPhone 4, he claimed.
Wait. Is Li really talking about his single-core apps/baseband processor?
Next: On par with iPhone 4?
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GeeKv2
3/18/2013 2:45 PM EDT
Junko, its been almost a week since Renesas decided to sell its mobile division. Have you any insider rumors about it?
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junko.yoshida
3/19/2013 11:01 AM EDT
Unfortunately, I have no great insight on this, GeeKv2. I suspect both ST-E and Renesas Mobile are struggling to find buyers...
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daleste
3/18/2013 10:26 PM EDT
It is interesting how much demand there is for this $50 phone in China. Why is there no demand in the rest of the world. Maybe this in an opportunity to take market share.
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eewiz
3/19/2013 12:13 AM EDT
If there is a 50$ smartphone with decent build quality and reasonable user experience there would be market in the developed world as a second/backup phone. I would gladly buy one for backup. But the problem is that these devices, even though may be functional, lacks in build quality and UI, which makes it a pain to use them after using iOS or Samsung devices.
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Tired IC engineer
3/19/2013 11:42 AM EDT
Why do you assume there is no demand for $50 phone outside China ? Cheap phones are in huge demands in developing countries such as India and Indonesia where per capita income are still very low compared to developed countries such as US and Western Europe.
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ip2design
3/20/2013 10:23 AM EDT
With economic crisis hurting Europe and the US, low cost smart phone is a global product. Nokia has focused its strategy on this, not only in China and India.
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Jeanshack
3/19/2013 12:49 PM EDT
"Wait. Is Li really talking about his single-core apps/baseband processor?"
I am sure there are dedicated DSP cores for handling telecom stack!
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yazhouren
3/20/2013 1:10 AM EDT
single-core is said about CPU, not GPU or DSP
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chanj
3/19/2013 1:09 PM EDT
When a new product starts, people will typically tolerate size and price. Towards market matureness, consumers will demand variety which include different size and form factor. In particular, in the Asian and European market, consumers will demand smaller phones, for ease of carrying, and different look, for uniqueness. The cell phone market development followed the trend from Motorola DynaTAC 8000X to Motorola MicroTAC; then, comes the Nokia 8850 with style.
Consumers are price sensitive, in particular, once the smartphone becomes a commodity.
There is no doubt the market is moving towards $50.00 smartphone. Nonetheless, the high price tag smartphone will still be around.
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daveberstein
3/19/2013 5:20 PM EDT
Junko - Is the $50 price really unsubsidized? That's how I read your article and if so that's amazing. A year ago people didn't expect to see $50 smartphones for much longer.
Incidentally, the previous commentators are underestimating the demand for cheap phones, even in the U.S. There are plenty of poorer folks, cheapskates and large families who are on prepaid in the U.S. with a cheap phone. Upgrading to a smartphone at that price is a no brainer for occasional use of the net.
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junko.yoshida
3/19/2013 6:09 PM EDT
That's correct. It is unsubsidized.
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yazhouren
3/20/2013 1:25 AM EDT
there are so many pepole so poor, they want to play smartphone, they wants to read news and play games in their free time
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aktion99
3/20/2013 8:23 AM EDT
Ok, one question I want to ask here is china will become like Japan in semiconductor industry were once the former take head to head with US in memory semiconductor and than surpassing US in the market share with superior cost advantage and manufacturing quality than now we seeing number of Chinese companies involve in mobile semiconductor space will this companies also can become like Japan surpassing US in same ways and strategy. Thanks.
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pcsalex
3/21/2013 4:16 PM EDT
Well, the Chinese are learning and getting smarter daily, what you can't say about the US
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green_is_now
3/21/2013 10:40 PM EDT
my cheap smartphone from cricket sucked.
not sure if the software,hardware or service sucked.
Ended up back at the V with penalty for leaving per month.
Hope they have fixed issues if in hardware or software.
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Hughston
3/25/2013 2:55 PM EDT
Interesting that top people in some of the major players in LTE all worked together at the same company in the US.
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