The smartphone Applications Processor (AP) market fell 4 percent to $20.1 billion in 2015, according to Strategy Analytics.
Qualcomm, Apple, MediaTek, Samsung LSI and Spreadtrum are the top-five vendors in the global smartphone AP market in 2015.
Qualcomm faced competition and lost market share in the smartphone AP market. Qualcomm’s smartphone AP revenue share dropped to 42 percent from 52 percent in 2014. Apple has 21 percent and MediaTek has 19 percent revenue shares.
Samsung LSI was the star performer in 2015 as the company doubled its smartphone AP shipments with the help of 14 nm-based Exynos APs.
Intel registered 66 percent shipment growth year-over-year in 2015 and captured just 1 percent unit share.
64-bit APs accounted for just over 50 percent of total smartphone AP shipments in 2015 and Qualcomm overtook Apple to capture the 64-bit market share leadership.
Sravan Kundojjala, associate director at Strategy Analytics, said: “Qualcomm’s flagship APs faced strong competition from vertical vendors such as Samsung LSI. Qualcomm, however, capitalized on its mid-range 64-bit chips and overtook Apple to take the 64-bit leadership crown in 2015.”
