LTE represents the fastest-growing part of the cellular baseband market, but 2G and 3G solutions still dominate the market. Just 13% of the cellular modems sold last year were LTE modems, according to the analysts at Forward Concepts.
“LTE is the fastest growing segment and it’s the only one that people are putting their engineering resources into,” said Will Strauss, founder and principal analyst at Forward Concepts. But the 2G and 3G markets are still much bigger, and will remain so for a while. “In Europe LTE is not dominant at all. It’s a hopscotch. Some countries have it, some countries don’t,” Strauss pointed out.
Qualcomm remains the top provider of cellular modems. The company has always supplied the baseband modems for the iPhone, giving it an early lead in the smartphone market. Qualcomm was also a pioneer in developing LTE modems, and in integrating baseband modems with applications processors. But for Apple, Qualcomm still supplies “standalone” modems because Apple makes its own applications processors.
“Qualcomm’s biggest standalone modem market is Apple,” said Strauss. “Standalone is an area that Qualcomm just does not pursue, except for Apple.” Nonetheless, Qualcomm dominates the standalone modem market with a 58% share, according to the analysts at Forward Concepts.
Tomorrow: a look at the LTE modem market in detail.
