In New Delhi: Shipments of mobile WiMAX chipsets reached 15 million in 2010, up from 5 million in 2009, according to the first issue of the 4Ggear Quarterly Report from Maravedis.
"The 2010 surge in mobile WiMAX device and chipset shipments, the total WiMAX chipset market is partly the result of the addition of 7.7 million WiMAX subscribers during the year," said Vikram Krishnamurthy, author of the report. However the overall picture is mixed. Shipments of WiMAX devices increased in 2010 but will be impacted by WiMAX carriers planning a move to LTE.
On the LTE side, shipments of LTE chipsets in 2010 were in low volumes, but are expected to reach 10 million units in 2011. "There are now a large number of players in the base-band chipset landscape but consolidation is well under way. Some LTE chipsets have been sampled (Altair, GCT, Sequans, and Cavium Networks), and others will follow in Q411 (Beceem, now Broadcom)," he added.
"Interestingly, the early incumbent LTE chipset suppliers may have a meaningful time to market advantage in the dual-mode 3G/4G chipset market," said Fernando Donoso, Team Leader for the 4Ggear service. "While LTE incumbent providers focus on sampling dual-mode chipsets, new entrants position themselves as technology drivers, delivering early LTE-only solutions."
Maravedis believes that the development of the LTE modem itself is not the most complex aspect of the global LTE picture. "Interoperability, seamless hand over, architecture expertise and management of the different bands across the world may be the most challenging obstacles facing LTE chipset suppliers," notes Krishnamurthy.
Key Findings from the report
* Beceem (now Broadcom), Sequans and GCT accounted for almost 83% of the total mobile WiMAX chipset market in 2010.
* The average selling price of a 4G chipset is at US$13 in 2011 and is expected to plateau at US$10 in a couple of years; further price decreases will be gradual as WiMAX chipset volumes may not grow due to increased LTE penetration.
* Indoor modems represented 24% of WiMAX units activated in 2010; USB dongles, PC cards, and netbooks/laptops accounted for 52%; and activated handsets amounted to 24%.
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