LTE will become the dominant 4G technology, although the deployment will be gradual and protracted, according to market research firm In-Stat.
The firm said that the chipset manufacturers such as Broadcom, Infineon and Qualcomm have established LTE product development plans while the market entrants such as Altair Semiconductor, Beceem, BitWave, Comsys, Sequans and Wavesat are hoping the LTE shift opens new opportunity.
According to research by In-Stat, by 2013, the total value of global end-use device silicon will exceed $2bn, though it will still be early in the growth cycle and much of the success in silicon will be made in low-noise amplifiers, power amplification, analog-to-digital conversion, SAW filters, and battery-life.
In addition, the study found that the ‘LTE-dedicated’ silicon BOM for mobile handsets will be slightly over $125 in 2011 and decline by nearly 30% by 2013.
Allen Nogee, analyst at In-Stat, said: “Leading 3G baseband chipset providers will not necessarily keep their leadership in LTE. The changes in platforms and technologies are disruptive enough to create major competitive shifts.”
