Shipments of smartphone-use application processors (AP) in China are expected to decline 10% sequentially but up 28.6% on year in the first quarter of 2015, according to Digitimes Research. The sequential decline is due to excessive orders placed by device vendors in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to Digitimes Research.
But for individual AP vendors, Qualcomm and Spreadtrum Communications will see their shipments decline significantly in the quarter, Digitimes Research's latest report noted.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon S400 and S600-series APs are facing strong challenges from comparable parts from MediaTek, and the performance-cost structure of its 600-series APs are weaker than MediaTek's. Meanwhile, Spreadtrum will see its shipments plunge 18.8% sequentially in the quarter due to reducing demand from emerging markets and a lack of LTE solutions.
MediaTek will fare better than Qualcomm with its AP shipments declining 14.5% on quarter, as increasing shipments of its 4G-enabled MT6752 and MT6732 solutions will help offset declinging 3G solution shipments.
However, Nvidia will see its shipments plunge sharply in the firsh quarter as XiaomiTechnology has decided to discontinue the adoption of Tegra family chips. HiSiliconTechnologies will perform strongly in the first quarter on orders from Huawei, while Samsung Electronics will also be able to expand the market share of its Exynos chips in China thanks to orders from China-based vendor Meizu.