Baseband vendors find growing market in TD-SCDMA

The Strategy Analytics report, "TD-SCDMA Baseband Market to Grow 200% in 2010," stated that the China TD-SCDMA market will be one of the key growth opportunities for cellular baseband players this year. The report noted MediaTek, ST-Ericsson and Spreadtrum as the major players in the nascent TD-SCDMA baseband market. MediaTek and ST-Ericsson both entered the market through acquisitions.

"Strategy Analytics estimates that the TD-SCDMA baseband revenues represented just 1.4 percent of total global cellular baseband revenues in 2009. Both MediaTek and ST-Ericsson dominated in terms of revenues by scoring multiple tier-one design-wins with their dual-mode GSM/TD-SCDMA basebands," according to Stuart Robinson, director of the handset component technologies service.

"Several new players—such as Marvell, Qualcomm, MStar Semiconductor and Infineon—are expected to enter into the Chinese TD-SCDMA baseband market in 2010-11," commented Sravan Kundojjala, Analyst. "Strategy Analytics believes that competition among chip vendors will drive down the price of TD-SCDMA handsets and potentially help to establish TD-SCDMA as a strong alternative to W-CDMA and CDMA2000 1xEV-DO radio technologies in China."