x86 and MIPS Applications Processors to Challenge ARM's Smartphone Market Share

ARM (News - Alert)-based applications processors currently have a virtual lock on the smartphone market. ARM processors have been providing the best power efficiency with comparatively less processing grunt than Intel equivalents.

But ABI Research principal analyst Peter Cooney says, “Both Intel (News - Alert) and ARM have been working hard to address their weaker areas and there will be a point in the next few years when the performance/power efficiency of these technologies will be equal. At that point the competition in the market should be immense. x86 and MIPS cores have entered the market in 2011, and are forecast to grow to around 18 percent of the market by 2016.”

The top four suppliers, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Samsung, and Marvell (News - Alert) were estimated to account for over 70 percent of total market revenues in 2010, and is expected to double between 2010 and 2016.

“The critical 'if' in these forecasts is the performance of the smartphone market,” stated chief research officer Stuart Carlaw. “If it continues to grow at its recent rate, these market forecasts should be accurate, and we have no reason to believe that it won't.”

The smartphone market is growing fast; in 2016 it is expected to reach over 700 million units per annum. Smartphones are becoming increasingly sophisticated, with more functionality, improved performance and new applications, which is driving the need for higher performance applications processors. The study forecasts the market growth of multi-core processors in smartphones. It provides forecasts for ARM vs. x86 vs. MIPS cores and standalone vs. integrated solutions. It also profiles and provides SWOT analyses for all major suppliers.

With chip architectures battle, average selling prices of chipsets are expected to fall.. Prices will be supported by the introduction of new applications that require new processor designs: applications such as 3D video and augmented reality.

Integrated and standalone application processors are most popular in the market. Standalone designs are more likely to be used in higher-end devices, while low to mid-range smartphones use integrated solutions to give faster time to market.

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