Cellular baseband market worth $3.5 billion in Q1 2011

BOSTON, USA: Quarterly global cellular baseband revenue grew a healthy 20 percent year-over-year to reach $3.5 billion, according to the latest market share report from the Strategy Analytics Quarterly Metrics Service, “Baseband Market Share Tracker: Intel Doubles Revenue Year-on-Year in Q1 2011.”

According to this Strategy Analytics report, cellular baseband market share rankings went through changes again in Q1 2011. Qualcomm ranked number one in baseband unit volume and revenue share in Q1 2011, with the help of its strong positions in CDMA, W-CDMA and LTE. Broadcom, Intel and Spreadtrum continued their impressive recent growth in Q1 2011 with strong shipments. MediaTek and ST-Ericsson both experienced declines in baseband revenues in Q1 2011 and compared to Q1 2010.

“Intel cellular baseband revenue more than doubled in Q1 2011 on the strength of strong design-win momentum with tier-one handset manufacturers. Despite the latest MeeGo setback, Nokia continues to be an important baseband customer for Intel in terms of volume,” noted Sravan Kundojjala, senior analyst. “However, Intel is still noticeably absent in Nokia 3G phones.”

“Strategy Analytics estimates that Spreadtrum baseband unit volume share reached double-digits for the first time in Q1 2011, pushing Spreadtrum into the top-five in terms of baseband unit shipments,” commented Stuart Robinson, director of the Handset Component Technologies service. “Spreadtrum’s surging unit shipment growth can be attributed to its aggressive pricing, international expansion efforts and R&D subsidies from the Chinese government.”