Semiconductor based electronics has continuously improved lives of people through various kinds of technology upgrades in the gadgets for our daily use. Imagine the journey from a mechanical typewriter to a laptop computer connected through a laser printer, transition from black & white photography to exotic coloured… Read More
Tag: xiaomi
Smartphones in Q1. Sammy Back On Top
Because it is such a major impact on the semiconductor industry, being the largest and fastest growing market ever, I follow the ups and down of the mobile industry. So what happened in Q1?
Total shipments are up 2% to a record (for Q1) 440 million units but that is down 16% from Q4 which remains the biggest quarter ever.
First thing is… Read More
Qualcomm LTE Modem Competitors? Samsung, Intel, Mediatek, Spreadtrum, Leadcore… or simply CEVA!
What is common between the 4G LTE modems from Samsung, Intel, Mediatek, Spreadtrum or Leadcore? All these chips are architecture with CEVA XC4000 family supporting 4G LTE-Advanced, LTE, HSPA/+, W-CDMA, TD-SCDMA, and legacy GSM/GPRS/EDGE. Samsung organization is vertical, the company design and manufacture DRAM, NAND and… Read More
CEVA Eyes DSP Scale in China’s $65 LTE Handsets
China Mobile’s bid to go for 3-mode Long-Term Evolution (LTE) has led to the first major breakthrough, $65 LTE handsets, and here baseband and application processors provided by chipmakers like Leadcore Technology, MediaTek and Spreadtrum Communications have all one thing in common: DSP cores from CEVA Inc.
The advent… Read More
Samsung and Apple: What is Really Going On?
Apple reported that it sold $74.6B in products last quarter, and earned an all-time record (for any company) $18.06B in profits. Sammy reported its lowest quarterly profit since 2011 at $21.3Bk, down almost a third.
In 2013 mobile had been 70% of Sammy’s profits so any drop in revenue or profitability would have an amplified… Read More
Facts Support New Emergence in Semiconductor Landscape
As we left an exciting year 2014 which is poised to record 7+ % increase in semiconductor revenue (~ $338 B) compared to 2013 (~ $315 B) and entered into another promising year 2015 for semiconductors, I looked back over the year bygone and collected inferences from some of the major important events which clearly convey how 2015 can… Read More
Chinese Apple In Trouble – What to look forward?
Xiaomi, an aspirant to top the Smartphone market through its disruptive entry into the maturing mobile phone market with its high quality Smartphones at rock bottom prices is getting roadblocks in its second largest market, India. It surreptitiously entered into today’s top mobile phone market in its home ground, China and in… Read More
Can Android1 Lead the Way for Google in New Smartphone Market?
I had been wanting to write about it since Google’sbig bang announcement of Android1 in India in Sep this year and their associated strategy to capture some of the large pockets of Smartphone market within a matured or declining cell phone market and maturing overall market of Smartphone. Since I wrote my last article hereon maturation… Read More
Xiaomi Already #3 in Smartphones Behind Samsung and Apple
The Q3 results are mostly in now and there are two big stories. The iPhone 6 of course, which started shipping just before the end of the quarter. The other story is China, now the #1 mobile market in the world. These have led to very different stories for different companies.
Samsung is basically flat with Q2, but that was a big drop. … Read More
What is the Latest in Mobile?
Most of the results are in for mobile for last quarter, plus the earnings calls are all over. The picture is not pretty. The big picture is that low-cost Android-based suppliers, primarily in Asia, are starting to eat a lot of market share from Samsung (#1) and Apple (#2). There were about 295M smartphones shipped in Q2, a measly 2% … Read More