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Hughston
Interesting that top people in some of the major players in LTE all worked ...
green_is_now
Spreadtrum flourishes as $50 smartphones boom
Junko Yoshida
3/18/2013 2:01 PM EDT
On par with iPhone 4?
“Of course, our handset customers are equally skeptical, when it comes to the performance of CPU/GPU performance of our chips. So before they decide to use our chips, they run a test. They use, for example, Geekbench, an application designed to offer a comprehensive set of benchmarks to quickly measure processor and memory performance,” said Li. “Our 1-GHz low-cost smartphone platforms can process data as fast as that of iPhone 4. Our Geekbench score is as high, or even better than that of iPhone 4.”
MediaTek vs. Spreadtrum
If both MediaTek and Spreadtrum are carving up what appears to be an explosive mid- to low-end smartphone market in China, what’s Spreadtrum’s game plan to compete against MediaTek?
“That market is so big that the two companies can comfortably coexist,” said Li.
Well, not quite. Spreadtrum leads in China Mobile’s TD-SCDM-based smartphone market with its single-core smartphone platforms. The company is said to have had more than a 50 percent market share among China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA handsets in 2012. Spreadtrum is expected to hang onto a similar 50 percent share also in 2013. MediaTek focuses on the mid-range smartphone market, armed with its dual-core solution. More important, MediaTek leads in non-China Mobile segments with its WCDMA solutions.
Spreadtrum is finally ready to move into the WCDMA market sometime between the second and the third quarter this year, according to Li. “Our first product will be using a 40-nm process, but we are quickly moving to a 28-nm process by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. in the fourth quarter.” Spreadtrum’s first WCDMA-based smartphone chip will be based on a single core. But the company plans to jump to a new quad-core solution in the fourth quarter, Li said.
No dual core?
“We’ll address that later. But for now, we see the dual-core market is a busy area, very crowded. We want to pick a spot to move into the quad-core segment first.”
Competing with MediaTek on the WCDMA market won’t be easy. But “whatever number of WCDMA chips we can sell this year, we will be contributing to what used to be a zero market share for us,” said Li.
Next: Working on LTE
“Of course, our handset customers are equally skeptical, when it comes to the performance of CPU/GPU performance of our chips. So before they decide to use our chips, they run a test. They use, for example, Geekbench, an application designed to offer a comprehensive set of benchmarks to quickly measure processor and memory performance,” said Li. “Our 1-GHz low-cost smartphone platforms can process data as fast as that of iPhone 4. Our Geekbench score is as high, or even better than that of iPhone 4.”
MediaTek vs. Spreadtrum
If both MediaTek and Spreadtrum are carving up what appears to be an explosive mid- to low-end smartphone market in China, what’s Spreadtrum’s game plan to compete against MediaTek?
“That market is so big that the two companies can comfortably coexist,” said Li.
Well, not quite. Spreadtrum leads in China Mobile’s TD-SCDM-based smartphone market with its single-core smartphone platforms. The company is said to have had more than a 50 percent market share among China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA handsets in 2012. Spreadtrum is expected to hang onto a similar 50 percent share also in 2013. MediaTek focuses on the mid-range smartphone market, armed with its dual-core solution. More important, MediaTek leads in non-China Mobile segments with its WCDMA solutions.
Spreadtrum is finally ready to move into the WCDMA market sometime between the second and the third quarter this year, according to Li. “Our first product will be using a 40-nm process, but we are quickly moving to a 28-nm process by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. in the fourth quarter.” Spreadtrum’s first WCDMA-based smartphone chip will be based on a single core. But the company plans to jump to a new quad-core solution in the fourth quarter, Li said.
No dual core?
“We’ll address that later. But for now, we see the dual-core market is a busy area, very crowded. We want to pick a spot to move into the quad-core segment first.”
Competing with MediaTek on the WCDMA market won’t be easy. But “whatever number of WCDMA chips we can sell this year, we will be contributing to what used to be a zero market share for us,” said Li.
Next: Working on LTE
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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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