Smartphone processor market to reach $30 bn in 2018, says Strategy Analytics

Driven by LTE, 64-bit and semiconductor technologies, the global smartphone applications processor market will grow at 10.8 percent CAGR from 2013 to 2018 to reach $30 billion in 2018, said Strategy Analytics.

Stand-alone applications processor penetration in smartphones will drop to 28 percent in 2018 from 38 percent in 2012 because of an increased push from integrated wireless chip vendors including Qualcomm, MediaTek, Spreadtrum, Broadcom and Marvell.

Multi-core penetration in smartphone applications processors will increase from 50 percent in 2012 to almost 100 percent in 2018, said Strategy Analytics.

The 64-bit chip penetration in smartphone applications processors will increase from 3 percent in 2013 to approximately 75 percent in 2018. Apple, Intel, Qualcomm and Samsung among others will drive this growth.

Smartphone

In March 2014, ABI Research said shipments of 64-bit mobile processors will exceed 182 million in 2014, of which 20 percent will power Android devices.

Shipments of 64-bit processors targeting smartphones and tablets will exceed 1.12 billion units by 2018, representing 55 percent of the total market, said ABI Research in a note.

Google Android devices will be leading consumption of these chips with 60 percent market share, followed by Apple’s iOS with 30 percent and Microsoft Windows in the third position with less than 9 percent market share, ABI Research said.

Strategy Analytics said that the 64-bit chip adoption will be slower than multi-core chip adoption in smartphones as the required software ecosystem transition is likely to take time.

ARM based chip penetration in smartphones will drop to 83 percent in 2018 from almost 100 percent in 2012. This can be attributed to concerted efforts by Intel in smartphones combined with the company’s lead in 14 nm and beyond process technologies, said Strategy Analytics.

ABI Research said that ARM will be the dominant instruction set for the 64-bit mobile processing but will gradually lose market share to x86 architecture, which will grab about 10 percent share of the total market, by 2018.

Strategy Analytics said that 3G / 4G integrated products from computing processor vendor Intel may lift the company’s smartphone applications processor share in the near-term. The report does not share market share of these chip vendors.

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