On February 19, chip maker Nvidia officially released the Tegra 4i system chip for smartphones and tablets, becoming the world's first integrated LTE (Long Term EvoluTIon, long-term evolution technology, known as 4G) network chipset. Phil Carmack, vice president of Nvidia ’s mobile business, said: “Tegra 4i was jointly designed by Nvidia and ARM and is Nvidia ’s first single integrated processor that supports all the major functions of smart phones. Mobile phones that use Tegra 4i will have superior computing Ability, first-class mobile phone performance, and can also extend the battery life of the mobile phone. "
At the same time, mobile chip leader Qualcomm also announced the latest news of the latest mobile phone chip RF360. According to reports, this mobile phone chip can support the global LTE network and can receive more than 40 cellular network frequency bands worldwide. This is Qualcomm's latest move following the release of the high-end processor Snapdragon 600 and 800 series and the Snapdragon 200 and 400 series processors for the low-end market in January this year.
Although 3G mobile phones have not yet become the mainstream of the market or the fiercest competition in the chip market, some manufacturers have set their sights on the more advanced communications era. According to statistics from market research agency Strategy AnalyTIcs, there were more than one hundred telecom operators in the world providing LTE commercial network transfer services in 2012. Since 2013, mainland China and Taiwan will also expand or enter the quasi 4G era.
It is worth mentioning that, in addition to NVIDIA, Qualcomm, ZTE, Samsung, Broadcom, etc. have also successively or are preparing to launch their own LTE chips, and showcased their products at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). American analyst firm Strategy AnalyTIcs predicts that the LTE market will experience rapid growth in 2014. By 2016, the number of global LTE users is expected to reach 700 million to 1.2 billion.
Under the great potential, the secret battle is on the verge.
Sudden change
A year ago, because chip development was extremely difficult, the market was not optimistic about the popularity of LTE. Even in the United States, where LTE network penetration is high in the world, one of the driving forces for LTE construction comes from the pressure from competitors.
According to foreign media reports, in 2010, American operator AT & T and iPhone launched a $ 30 unlimited data plan to achieve rapid customer growth; another operator Verizon began to adopt a strategy to quickly achieve full coverage of LTE networks to ensure network leadership. At the end of the year, the LTE commercial business was launched, and the CDMA business was gradually migrated to the LTE network.
Today, 3 years later, "Verizon has become the world's largest LTE operator, covering 371 cities in the United States, more than 75% of the US population." Relevant personnel of Ericsson, the leading manufacturer of CDMA technology, said, "Among the 19 US operators There are 13 countries that support CDMA-LTE, becoming the country with the widest LTE coverage and the largest number of devices and users in the world. "
The rapid growth of the US market has caused the industry to change its attitude towards LTE. With the active development of LTE in Britain, Germany, Japan, South Korea and other communication developed countries, the LTE network finally ushered in explosive growth in 2012.
According to the LTE Evolution Report released by the Global Mobile Equipment Suppliers Association (GSA) in November 2012, the total number of commercial LTE networks in the world has reached 113, and 360 telecom operators in 105 countries have committed to launch LTE. The total number of LTE networks is expected to exceed 166.
In the chip market, following Infineon's launch of the world's first LTE chip in 2009, Qualcomm, Samsung, LG, and Nvidia have concentrated their efforts in 2012. Domestic ZTE also launched the world's first single-chip TD-LTE (long-term evolution technology of domestic TD-SCDMA) smartphone this year. "TD-LTE depends on the development of the network environment, and ZTE has made sufficient preparations in terms of hardware." He Shiyou, Executive Vice President of ZTE, said.
In addition, MediaTek's TD-LTE solution was also sampled at the end of 2012, while FD LTE technology was authorized through NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest operator, and will integrate 2.5G / 3G / 4G chips next year.
grab the chance
Although many chip manufacturers have announced their entry into the quasi 4G field, the Strategy AnalyTIcs report shows that the current main market for LTE chips is still dominated by Qualcomm, while Samsung mainly supplies its own mobile phones. Therefore, "for other communication vendors, this is a brand new opportunity." He Shiyou said so when talking about the strategic significance of 4G. In addition, some well-established and powerful chip makers regard the LTE market as an opportunity to regain their advantage.
Nvidia is one of them. As a veteran chip manufacturer, Nvidia Tegra series chips have a reputation in the mobile market, but in the face of Qualcomm competition and Samsung's current reliance on its own manufacturers, Nvidia business growth tends to slow down. The financial report shows that Nvidia's net profit for the fourth quarter of 2012 was US $ 116 million, a 32% decrease from US $ 171.7 million in the same period last year.
For this result, the reason given by Nvidia is that "the growth of the PC market has slowed, and the output of tablet PCs equipped with chips has decreased before the release of new models." Citigroup analyst Gran Young believes that "Qualcomm took away Nvidia Business. " He also said that due to increased competition, Nvidia's next-generation chips may also have difficulty winning new business.
Therefore, Nvidia decided to expand its business scope to the LTE field. "We are working around the clock." Nvidia CEO Huang Renxun said, "To break through the tablet market and compete with Qualcomm in the field of high-end smartphone chips, we must develop this technology."
Huang Renxun's idea is also a "prescription" prescribed by Broadcom CEO Scott McGregor. At present, Broadcom's performance in the smartphone chip market is slightly bleak.
According to public data, Broadcom ranked fifth in chip market share in 2011. In 2012, when Qualcomm's market share climbed to 31%, Broadcom, together with MediaTek, Intel, Texas Instruments, Spreadtrum and other manufacturers accounted for only 34% of the global market.
When the LTE era comes and chip manufacturers stand on the same starting line again, Scott McGregor said: "Our goal is to develop a world-class chip for flagship smartphones and tablets."
On the same day that Nvidia launched its product, Broadcom revealed the first quasi 4G baseband chip, which also supports most of the world's network standards. Scott said: "This chip is only one-third the size of competitors, and has more integration advantages."
To be broken
Public information shows that LTE networks cover multiple network bands such as TD LTE, FD LTE, and CDMA, so chip manufacturers are also divided into single-mode and multi-mode roads. Qualcomm chose the latter.
Qualcomm said: "RF360 supports more than 40 cellular network frequency bands in the world, and truly realizes a chip to support all LTE networks in the world." "Multi-mode chips are more integrated." Another industry source told this reporter that "mobile phone manufacturers usually need to release Many mobile phones can fully support various networks of global operators. The birth of multi-mode chips will lead mobile terminals into the real world mobile phone era. "
It is understood that before the Apple iPhone needs to launch three models to cover all models around the world. Nvidia, Broadcom, ZTE and other manufacturers are also exploring along this road.
Some manufacturers with insufficient strength start from single-mode 4G chips. For example, MediaTek, on the one hand, develops TD LTE solutions, and at the same time, enters the field of multi-mode integration through authorization. Hisis, another domestic chip manufacturer, specializes in TD LTE chips.
Nonetheless, "It's still not the time for chip manufacturers to be blindly optimistic." The industry insider noted, "Because of hardware and software limitations, worldwide LTE technology is still in its infancy."
In Hong Kong, China, "3G and LTE are both hands, and the unstable signal restricts the development of the latter." In the United States, where LTE is at the forefront, charges are still being criticized. The Wireless Intelligence research team of the American GSM Association pointed out that for the same data traffic, American users need to spend twice as much as European users. In South Korea, since SK Telecom launched its commercial LTE network in July 2012, its net profit has been on a downward trend. Similarly, due to the significant increase in LTE marketing expenses and network investment and other factors, LG's operator U + had a net loss of 38.4 billion won in the third quarter of 2012.
However, there is still good news in the market. The biggest shortcoming of insufficient terminal support in the era of 3G promotion has not been repeated in the LTE era.
According to the latest report of the Global Mobile Equipment Suppliers Association (GSA), as of January 31, 2013, 87 equipment manufacturers worldwide had successively launched a total of 666 LTE user terminal equipment. There were 400 models listed in 2012 alone, and the number of manufacturers joining the LTE camp has increased by more than half compared with the previous year.
Some people in the communications industry believe that with the rapid popularization of tablet computers and other large-sized mobile devices, and the strong development of multimedia and social networking applications, users need higher-speed networks, even if they are short, but in the face of such a large When it comes to business opportunities, communications companies will definitely accelerate the pace of promotion.
According to the market research agency IHS estimates, from 2011 to 2012, the number of global LTE users will increase from 16.9 million to 73.3 million, an increase of 334%; the total number of 4G users in 2013 will reach 200 million; The number will approach 1 billion. As more manufacturers introduce support products, LTE is expected to become the mainstream of major mobile phone brands in 2013.
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