Competition in smartphone chipset solutions market to heat up in 2H16
Cage Chao, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Tuesday 15 March 2016]
digitimes.com
Competition in the smartphone chipset solution market is expected to heat up in the second half of 2016 when major players including Qualcomm, MediaTek, Spreadtrum Communications and HiSilicon Technologies launch their 14/16nm 8-core 64-bit products, according to industry sources.
MediaTek will officially unveil its 10-core Helio X20 chip in Shenzhen, China on March 16, targeting the mid- to high-end smartphone segment. The X20 SoCs will come with a tri-cluster configuratoin comprising of two Cortex-A72 cores and four Cortex-A53 cores, and also integrate a multi-mode Cat 6 LTE modem.
MediaTek will start volume production of the Helio X20 at the end of the second quarter of 2016, according to a Chinese-language Liberty Times report. Shipments of Helio family products will account for 20% of MediaTek's total sales in 2016 compared to 8% a year earlier, said the report.
Qualcomm will continue to promote its 14nm quad-core Snapdragon 820 family products in the first half of 2016, but it is reportedly planning to launch a new 8-core SoC in the second half of the year, the sources indicated.
Additionally, Qualcomm is also likely to unveil its next-generation 10nm solutions by the end of 2016 in order to maintain its leading market position, the sources added.
Meanwhile, Spreadtrum and HiSilicon are expected to gear up efforts to promote their 8-core SC9860 and Kirin 950 chips, respectively, in the second half of 2016. The 16nm SC9860 and Kirin 950 are both manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).
Keen competition among the major chip solution providers is likely to result in a steep drop of smartphone-used CPU prices in the fourth quarter of 2016, commented the sources. |
