Qualcomm-led $20.2bn smartphone chip market in 2017
San Francisco, June 12 : As the global smartphone Applications Processor (AP) market declined 5 per cent (year-over-year) to reach $20.2 billion in 2017, Qualcomm was the leader with 42 per cent revenue share, a new report said on Tuesday.
According to market research firm Strategy Analytics, Qualcomm, Apple, MediaTek, Samsung LSI and HiSilicon captured the top-five revenue share spots in 2017.
Qualcomm was followed by Apple with 22 per cent at second place and MediaTek with 15 per cent at third.
"The 64-bit smartphone AP shipments grew 15 per cent (year-on-year) and accounted for 88 per cent of the total smartphone AP shipments in CY 2017, up from 71 per cent in CY 2016," said the report.
Apple, HiSilicon, Qualcomm and Samsung LSI all registered year-on-year shipment growth while MediaTek and Spreadtrum saw their shipments decline sharply.
"2017 proved to be a very challenging year for low-cost and high volume players MediaTek and Spreadtrum as both companies saw their smartphone AP shipments and revenue decline sharply," said Sravan Kundojjala, Associate Director at Strategy Analytics.
Security, privacy and bandwidth factors are currently driving the on-device Artificial Intelligence (AI) chip trend as smartphone chip companies are integrating intelligence engines in their designs.
"The on-device AI chip landscape is highly fragmented. We think 2018 will be an experimental year for on-device AI chips and 2019 will see more clarity on future direction," said the report.
In 2017, over 250 million smartphone APs shipped with native AI engines to enable machine learning (ML) applications such as 3D face detection, image recognition and Animoji.
Octa-core chips accounted for over 40 per cent of total smartphone AP shipments.
"Thanks to Qualcomm's increased strength in the mid-range with the Snapdragon 600 series, Qualcomm gained significant share at Chinese OEMs including Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi at the expense of MediaTek in 2017," informed Stuart Robinson, Executive Director of the Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies service.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
