According to ABI Research, about 46% of the total handsets to be shipped by 2018, would be based on integrated platform, which will be chipsets based with a combinations of application processor, baseband processor, and wireless connectivity technologies.
According to the ABI report, the number of handsets based on integrated platform will grow from 19% of the total shipment in 2012.
ABI research research director Philip Solis said that integrated applications are used in many handsets from mass-market smartphones to flagship smartphones and will eventually find their way into feature phones.
"One industry dynamic mitigating the need for integrated platforms are device reference designs and related services offered by semiconductor vendors," Solis added.
Handsets powered by a dual-core or higher application processor will account 92% of the total handsets shipped in 2018, compared to 80% of handsets shipped in 2012 powered by a single-core processor.
About one billion smartphones will be powered by quad core processors or processors with 4 cores by 2018.
In 2012, 12% of handsets were LTE enabled and by 2018 the 35% of all handsets will be LTE enabled, while a small part of the devices are expected to have single-mode LTE.
According the analysts, Qualcomm is expected to benefit from its integrated platform products as it offers a large number of them with different features while other vendors like Intel and Broadcom are expected to be big competitors.
