Global cellular baseband chip market report: Qualcomm holds over 60% market share

Semiconductor research organization TechInsights recently released a report on the global cellular baseband chip market. Sales and revenue of global manufacturers fell sharply in Q4, but the global total still increased by 7.4%, with output value reaching US$33.4 billion. The top five baseband chip manufacturers in the world are Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung LSI, Unisoc, and Intel. However, the shares of the major manufacturers are unevenly distributed. Qualcomm alone occupies 60.9% of the share. MediaTek ranks second, but its share is only At 26.5%, the third-placed Samsung only has 6.2%, and the combined share of other manufacturers is only 6.4%.

5G baseband revenue will increase by 23% in 2022, mainly driven by Qualcomm and MediaTek's 5G chips, which will also drive the average ASP of baseband chips to increase by 24%. However, the penetration rate of 5G baseband is still very low, and 4G is still the mainstream.

Qualcomm alone accounts for 60.9% of the entire market, and baseband revenue increased by 18%. Its main customers are the Samsung Galaxy S22 series and iPhone series.

In this market, Qualcomm’s advantages in both 4G and 5G basebands cannot be surpassed by other manufacturers. Moreover, due to various reasons, MediaTek and Samsung’s high-end baseband share declined last year.

Currently, only Unisoc can compete in the country, but it mainly focuses on the low-cost 2G and 3G baseband fields. Huawei HiSilicon, which was originally the most competitive, is now unable to compete in the 4G and 5G baseband chip markets due to well-known reasons. What a pity.