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Digitimes Research: Smartphone APs to face fierce competition in China in 2016

Benson Wu, DIGITIMES Research, Taipei

Observing China's mobile market in 2016, Digitimes Research expects smartphone AP price competition to grow fiercer, while Qualcomm and MediaTek will continue to push Internet of Things (IoT) to seek new business opportunities.

Second- and third-tier AP suppliers are expected to experience a wave of mergers and acquisitions as smartphone demand continues to weaken. As for 5G network roll-outs in China, Tsinghua Unigroup's lineup in the semiconductor industry supply chain and Huawei, which has been chosen by the China government as the pioneer of 5G network standards, have both been certified to operate 5G network technologies in outdoor areas.

Digitimes Research found that China's smartphone market was able to maintain strong shipment growth in 2015 mainly due to handset replacement due to 4G LTE network deployments. In the third quarter of 2015, China's 4G handsets already account for 87% of the country's overall handset shipments, growing significantly by 42pp from the same period a year ago.

Content from this article was part of a complete Digitimes Research Chinese-language report that has not yet been translated into English. If you are interested in an English version of the report or wish to receive more information about the report, click here to contact us and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Digitimes Research also provides quarterly tracking services for market sectors such as China Smartphone, China Smartphone AP, Taiwan ICT and Taiwan FPD. Click here for more information about Digitimes Research Tracking services.