China, Taiwan chip away at APAC mobile IC revenues

Driven by the mobile handset manufacturing market, IC (integrated circuit) vendors in the region saw their market share grow in 2010, with China and Taiwan accounting for one-fifth of mobile IC revenues in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a new report.

In a Wednesday statement, ABI Research noted that handset semiconductor suppliers from the two East Asian markets reaped nearly 20 percent of the total Asia-Pacific mobile handset IC revenues last year. About three-quarters of the IC revenues were generated by the region's mobile handset manufacturing business, it said.

Peter Cooney, ABI Research's practice director of semiconductors, added that Asian semiconductor vendors are enjoying "increasing success in the wider global market". Taiwanese vendor MediaTek, for instance, snapped up 10 percent of the worldwide mobile handset IC revenues in 2010.

China IC makers up and coming
Slower demand for PC and increasing popularity of smartphones and tablets have driven some Taiwanese IC design houses to turn their attention to mobile products, said the research firm. It added that Chinese companies have also demonstrated their handset IC design capability and are aggressively pursuing the market.

Jake Saunders, vice president of forecasting at ABI Research, stated that IC design companies from both markets will continue to grow faster than their competition elsewhere as their knowledge and capability increases in this market and with China remaining as the world's largest handset market.

In an August report, market research firm Strategy Analytics noted that the Asia-Pacific region was key to Apple--with its iPhone device--toppling long-time leader Nokia to become the No. 1 smartphone vendor in the world.