ABI: Broadcom tops wireless connectivity IC market
Broadcom has been ranked number one vendor in three recent Competitive Assessments according to ABI Research's Wireless Connectivity Database.
One was for overall wireless connectivity ICs, another considered Bluetooth ICs, and the final one was for Wi-Fi ICs.
Broadcom is the market leader for wireless connectivity ICs, with by far the largest market share.
It has had particular success with media tablets and successive wireless connectivity combo ICs, used predominantly in smartphones from handset vendors such Apple, Samsung, LG, HTC, Nokia, and many more. Qualcomm claimed second place overall in each of the Competitive Assessments and is snapping at Broadcom's heels.
"The wireless connectivity IC market has gone through a transition period over the last few years, from one served by technology specific companies, to one served largely by technology agnostic companies that have wide product portfolios," comments Peter Cooney, practice director.
"As more devices have embraced two or more short-range wireless technologies it has been those suppliers that have been able to integrate Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, NFC, FM, etc., such as Broadcom, that have grabbed market share from competitors and become market leaders whilst others have been marginalised," Cooney adds.
In the next 5 to 10 years, as the Internet of Everything (IoE) market develops and there will be two distinct markets: hubs and nodes. There will be increased integration into platform ICs, vendors will need to be able to provide all of the building blocks for devices (such as smartphones) in order to populate the market with multi-radio hubs capable of interacting with the billions of new node devices that will tend to be single technology solutions.
Each of these will require IC vendors to have a multi-technology strategy to take advantage of the expanding market, and it is the vendors with the widest product portfolios that will be most successful.
