The global market for smartphone applications processors grew in size by 70% year-on-year to reach $7.9bn in 2011.
According to market analyst Strategy Analytics, there are on-going changes in the smartphone manufacturer landscape.
"For the first time, on an annual basis, Qualcomm led the smartphone applications processor market in unit terms in 2011, snatching the long-held crown from Texas Instruments," said the analyst.
In revenue terms, Qualcomm finished the year with around 50% revenue share.
Standalone applications processors accounted for 40% of total smartphone applications processor revenues in 2011 and out-grew baseband-integrated applications processors, thanks to Apple, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Nvidia and Qualcomm, said the analyst.
Broadcom made gains too due to its high-volume Android design-wins. Broadcom’s applications processor shipments showed over 500% year-on-year growth in 2011.
The new market entrant is Nvidia and, according to Strategy Analytics, it finished as the number six player in both unit terms and revenue terms in 2011.
Despite its first mover advantage with dual-core processors, Nvidia lost momentum in the second half of 2011.
“During 2011, Qualcomm strongly benefited from its broad Snapdragon processor portfolio, strong presence in multiple software ecosystems and excellent relationships with almost all top-tier smartphone vendors,” said Sravan Kundojjala, senior analyst and the author of the report “Smartphone Apps Processor Market Share: Rising Star Broadcom Storms into Top-Five in 2011.”
“We see the Android ecosystem continuing to be a big growth driver for Qualcomm and enabled it to capture approx. 50 percent revenue share in the overall smartphone applications processor market in 2011,” he added.
