Qualcomm dominates sales of smartphone processors, but doesn’t feature in the top five sellers in tablets, figures from Strategy Analytics show.
The US chipmaker holds a commanding 49% share of smartphone processor sales, with nearest rival Apple accounting for only 13% of the market in the first quarter, regular numbers from the research company reveal. The tables are more than turned in tablets, where Apple held a 40% share in 1Q13 compared to Texas Instruments on 13%.
However, Strategy Analytics figures also show the smartphone sector remains the most lucrative. Sales in 1Q13 grew nearly 50% year on year to $3.6 billion, compared to total tablet processor sales of $740 million, even though the latter figure is up 52% year on year.
Sravan Kundojjala, senior analyst at the firm, says Chinese and Taiwanese chip makers grabbed a combined 29% of tablet sales during the quarter, and tips MediaTek to generate a double digit share of non-iPad tablets in 2013 after a strong first quarter.
Qualcomm’s domination of the smartphone market in the first three months was mostly due to its “surging stand-alone APQ-series applications processor shipments,” in devices from HTC, Google, LG, Samsung and Sony, Kundojjala says.