Smartphone processor share: AI vendors gain

Smartphone Applications Processor (Aps) with artificial intelligence (AI) functionality grew almost 3-fold in Q1 2018, Strategy Analytics said.
Q1 2018 smartphone AP market shareApple, HiSilicon, Qualcomm and Samsung LSI were the main beneficiaries from the AI-driven innovation in the mobile technology space.

Vertical vendors Apple, HiSilicon and Samsung LSI together captured 40 percent revenue share in Q1 2018. The market leader Qualcomm improved its market share with the help of Chinese OEMs.

Smartphone shipments achieved by Samsung was 71.5 million units for 20.4 percent share against 38.4 million by Huawei for 15.5 percent share, 41.3 million iPhones by Apple for 11.8 percent share, 32 million by Xiaomi for 9.1 percent share and 30.2 million by OPPO for 8.6 percent share. Smartphone shipments dropped 3 percent to 350.4 million in Q2 2018.

The smartphone Applications Processor (AP) market fell 0.3 percent to $4.5 billion in the first quarter of 2018, according to Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies service report.

Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung LSI, MediaTek and HiSilicon held the top-five revenue share spots in the smartphone AP market in Q1 2018.

US-based Qualcomm maintained its smartphone AP momentum with 45 percent revenue share followed by Apple with 17 percent and Samsung LSI with 14 percent.

Key AI smartphone APs include Apple A11 Bionic, HiSilicon Kirin 970, Qualcomm Snapdragon 845/835 and Samsung Exynos 9810.

“AI’s potential is yet to be realized in smartphones and AI will ignite the architecture innovation in smartphone APs in the coming days,” Stuart Robinson, executive director of the Strategy Analytics, said.

MediaTek

MediaTek has underperformed in the chipset market and its smartphone AP sales reached the lowest in the past four years due to challenges in product transition and competition from Qualcomm. The report said MediaTek lost smartphone AP market share for the fifth consecutive quarter.

“MediaTek’s share losses are bottoming out and its renewed Helio P series chip effort has the potential to bring MediaTek back on track in the coming quarters,” said Sravan Kundojjala, associate director at Strategy Analytics.