European chip giant STMicroelectronics continues to hold the
lead in the analogue ASSP market, as 2006 is poised to be a growth
year for analogue ASSP players, according to market researcher
Databeans.
The market research firm's study on the analogue ASSP market
shows that ST held 20 per cent of the 2005 $20.2bn market, followed
by fellow European chipmaker Infineon Technologies with 14 per cent
of the market.
Europe's Philips Semiconductors and US chipmaker Texas
Instruments are tied for third place in the market with 12 per cent
share each, according to Databeans.
Nearly 90 per cent of ST's analogue revenue comes from products
used specifically in handsets, vehicles, consumer electronics, and
embedded storage, the market researcher said. Overall, handset
revenue alone constitutes 32 per cent of overall analogue ASSP
revenue, according to Databeans.
Meanwhile, 2006 should provide revenue growth opportunities for
ST, along with other handset baseband, processor, and power
management chip providers, as 3G production continues to escalate,
the market researcher said. It estimates that this segment of the
wireless chip industry will generate $7.3bn in revenue for this
year.
For number two analogue ASSP player Infineon, its wireless
handset revenue constitutes 34 per cent of its overall analogue
revenue, according to Databeans.
Its current product offering serves the low-end and 2G handset
space, but the company roadmap has set the goal of recognising
revenue from 3G platforms by Q3 of this year, the market researcher
noted.
Furthermore, the impending separation of Infineon's DRAM
business will consolidate business segments, and analogue will
become the largest contributing business segment, accounting for
more than half the company revenue, Databeans observed. In 2005,
memory products accounted for over 40 per cent of Infineon's
sales.
As for the rest of the top five, Freescale has the largest
contribution to total analogue revenue with 49 per cent, followed
by Philips with 44 per cent, and TI with 19 per cent. TI's wireless
handset analogue revenue, combined with its massive handset DSP
sales, constituted 41 per cent of that company's total
semiconductor revenue for 2005, the market researcher noted.
www.databeans.net