Recently smartphone supply chain circulated a statement: China Mobile from October 1 this year, subsidies LTE cat.7 models, since MediaTek’s baseband (modem) currently only supports LTE cat.6, under the explosion models models OPPO R9 version R9S steering Qualcomm platform, thereby adversely affecting shipping couplet MediaTek chip solution.

Spreadtrum recently in the media open day, also emphasized its for high-end smart phone market launch of the first LTE chip solution SC9860, integrated baseband support LTE cat.7, thus more than one asymmetric competition in the market compared to MediaTek Advantage.

Baseband on the mobile phone industry is evident. Due to popular mobile phone chip integrated solutions, has only application processor (AP) chip makers in the smart phone industry is difficult to gain a foothold chip giants have set foot in a lot of R & D group with the acquisition or expansion. For example NVIDIA acquired Icera, Broadcom acquired Renesas communications chip business, Intel acquired Infineon’s chip business.

However, Broadcom, Marvell and Nvidia and other chip giant struggled several times, chose to quit. So far, the global mobile phone baseband vendors have only Qualcomm, MediaTek of Taiwan, Huawei Hass, violet show sharp (Spreadtrum), South Korea’s Samsung and other companies a few. Collective exit mobile phone chip giant, Samsung self-study because the baseband has achieved great success.

The last straw that breaks the camel

As the world’s largest, and shipments ahead of the smart phone manufacturers, Samsung’s every move, decided the fate of the suppliers and downs. Meanwhile, Samsung is the world’s most complete industrial chain of smart phone manufacturers, in addition to the smart phone, the panel, components, chip, wafer manufacturing, and other fields have achieved enviable success. Apple and Samsung patent war vigorous in those years, Apple’s iPhone has had to rely on Samsung’s production core chips.

Samsung is also a considerable scale manufacturers of communications equipment. Smart phone industry chain of control and communication technology understanding, so that Samsung as early as 2010 began with a research and development base. After 2010, the Samsung Galaxy S series smartphones was a huge success, jumped from the world’s biggest smartphone maker, a full range of phones using Qualcomm, Broadcom, Marvell and Intel chips, but has not given up its own R & D base band.

By 2015, Samsung invested many years finally beginning to see the rewards: Galaxy S6 Most shipments using a self-developed baseband chip, and Exynos7 discrete structure, technical strength to achieve industry-leading level. And before the Galaxy S6, Samsung already uses an integrated version of the application processors and baseband chips for low-end smart phones. Samsung’s long-term dependence Marvell and Broadcom, lost the largest customers.

Prior to this, China’s Huawei Hass, Spreadtrum has been rising, and MediaTek together serious pressure on the survival of these foreign chip giant, the Samsung can only hold thigh. Samsung chip with self-study group after the success, became the last straw that breaks the camel, forcing these giants arm to survive, to exit the mobile phone chip market.

In fact, from WCDMA to HSPA to HSPA + and then to LTE, the LTE Cat.3 to LTE Cat.4, LTE Cat.6, LTE cat.7 to LTE cat.9 like, baseband technology almost every year in the evolution. Manufacturing technology-intensive, highly complex baseband requires strong communications technology research and development and ongoing annual R & D investment, high investment, high risk features hundreds of millions of dollars, the mobile phone chip giants unbearable. Broadcom has revealed exit baseband business could save $ 700 million a year. Huawei, Samsung and other mobile phone manufacturers choose self-study, so that the chip giants do not see the huge investment returns, exit to become the only option.

Vertical integration model success?

A few years ago the outbreak of the demand for smart phones, the world once had dozens of companies developing mobile phone chips. In Matthew and scale, driven by merger and reorganization of these companies continued survival of the fittest, with Broadcom, Marvell and other chip giant quit, cell phone chip industry ushered in the era of oligopolistic competition.

Meanwhile, the explosive growth of smart phones, a leadership position in the mobile phone manufacturers shipments reach tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of its own with the scale effect, let the phone manufacturers, “vertical integration” as possible. Huawei is the pioneer, the company’s Hass over the years invested heavily in chip development, and rely on their own integrated chip solutions for smartphones brings a differentiated competitive advantage, it is widely recognized by consumers.

Huawei handset shipments is limited to the size and positioning of Huawei Hass, Huawei Hass chip supply to solve their own part, it did not affect Qualcomm, MediaTek and other chip vendors independent business model. Samsung dominate the global mobile phone, in the field of the same super-class components supplier, Galaxy S6 proved the strength of Samsung chip solutions, introduced this year Exynos 8890, is an integrated chip solution (single-chip processor), the baseband data rates up to 600Mbps the LTE cat.12, with Qualcomm and Huawei Hass at the same level.

Moreover, in the chip manufacturing also uses Samsung’s own 14nm FinFET technology. According to public performance parameters, performance Samsung Fengyun flagship single-chip with Qualcomm Xiaolong 820 par. Earlier claims that Qualcomm Xiaolong 820 to Samsung OEM manufacturing, it is afraid of losing big customers to take the initiative. 2015 Samsung Galaxy S6 using their own chip solution, allowing Qualcomm earnings was very ugly, and even face the risk of the company was split.

Smart phone industry more competitive, “left is king,” the trend is clear. When the remaining large manufacturers have more than 50 million units or even a million units in shipments, but also have a basic self-developed chip scale effects. If the self-developed chips will bring greater competitive advantage than general-purpose chip, it would be a subversion of the business model. Samsung self-developed baseband success, the butterfly effect is caused by the mobile phone chip industry.

Finding electronic components, www.igbtexpress.com is a specialized web for obsolete and hard to find electronic components,most of components types found at our web, such as: FS75R12KE3_B3 and FF300R12KT4, visit our website for more components which your need to buy.