3G/LTE baseband market grew 892% last year

According to the latest report from Forward Concepts, the multi-mode stand-alone (3G/LTE) baseband chip market registered a growth of 892 per cent to $852 million in 2012. It represented 50 million modems and another 20 million 3G/LTE digital base bands integrated with application processors (DBB apps processors) brought the 3G/LTE basebands to 70 million total units.

Although digital basebands, application processors and com-processors (basebands paired with application processors) accounted for almost a third (31 per cent) of the market, there are many other rapidly growing chips that serve this market.

From a revenue growth standpoint, GPS chips grew 87 per cent to the $779 million level, thanks to 100 per cent take-up in the smartphone market in 2012. But MEMS of several types experienced 64 per cent growth to $3.9 billion last year, added the market research firm.