Quad-core Handset Chip –the Market Stream

Double-core phone chip can concurrently meet requirements of mobile internet and games for chip performance. But there is not only good performance but also selling point in quad-core phone chip, which expects to become the mainstream of market, according to Xie Qingjiang, the general manager of phone chip manufacturer MediaTek.

In order to follow market development trend, handset chip manufacturer Qualcomm at the end of September released quad-core smart phone chips—MSM8225Q and MSM8625Q; MediaTek also plans to introduce quad-core smart phone chip products at the end of this year or in earlier next year.

In addition to developing multi-core chip, Chinese mainland would officially launch smartphone-replacing wave in this year, smartphone market demands in next year is projected to continue high growth, likely achieving strong growth of more than 300 million units with 50% annual growth rate, from 200 million units of this year.
　
Due to no royalty, TD-SCDMA market in Chinese mainland, MediaTeck believes is one of the main force driving Chinese mainland’s smartphone market growth in next year. Xie Qingjiang noted multi-core is also one important trend for smartphone chip development in the future.

To occupy TD-SCDMA market opportunities, Qualcomm, at the end of September, also announced it was set to introduce the first low-price smartphone chip MSM8930 supporting TD-SCDMA, and it is predicted to send sample in the fourth quarter; by the first quarter of next year, customers can cast the new handset into market. 　　

Although MediaTek and Qualcomm have not conducted the quad-core smartphone chip war, currently market has casted focus into it. Most industry experts believe Qualcomm’s price competition will likely affect MediaTek’s short-term gross margin performance, but there is high growth space for MediaTek’s smartphone chip shipment which expects to exceed 200 million, increasing one time than this year.