February 25, 2016

Semiconductors Update - Mobile World Congress

005930 KS, AAPL, FINGB SS, QCOM
By Van Tran
Several semiconductor-related items attracted OTR Global's attention at this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, including new handset design wins and a proposed low-powered LTE standard that could benefit the next Apple Watch.
Qualcomm: Strong Line Up for Snapdragon 820 
Even before the show began, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930 KS) unveiled the Galaxy S7, and a portion of the shipments will be powered by Qualcomm Inc.’s Snapdragon 820. Although no one at the Samsung booth would say whether Qualcomm got the design wins, Qualcomm settled the matter with a press release confirming the design win. OTR Global believes the majority of S7 and S7 Edge shipments are expected to run on Samsung’s in-house SOCs.

Other devices running on Snapdragon 820 that were unveiled at Mobile World Congress include the LG Electronics Inc. (066570 KS) G5, the Xiaomi Inc. Mi5, and the Sony Corp. Xperia X. OTR Global reported in December that Qualcomm was likely to supply the Snapdragon 820 for a part of Samsung's S7 shipments, as well as for the Xiaomi M5 and the LG G5.

Just across from Qualcomm’s booth, Intel Corp. did not show off any modems or SoFIA SOCs.

Apple Watch Could Have Lower-Power LTE Next Year
Modem chip makers and telco infrastructure companies devoted sizeable booth space to showcase a new, low-speed, low-power and narrow band wireless cellular standard called LTE CAT 13, which is being certified by the 3GPP industry trade group. OTR Global believes these modems, expected to be in mass production next year, could allow Apple Inc. to design into its next generation Apple Watch LTE radio that could function on its own without being assisted or tethered to the iPhone.

Currently, Sequans Communications SA, Intel and Qualcomm have said they will ship LTE CAT 13 chips when the standard is certified.

Another Competitor to Fingerprint Cards AB in China
Newcomer Elan Microelectronics Corp. (2458 TT) showed off a design win with a major Shenzhen-based ODM at Mobile World Congress. With another vendor entering the market, sources expect module prices to be pressured this year, which could push China market leader Fingerprint Cards AB to lower cost or lose some market share. FPC’s shipment volume is expected to be stable this year because fingerprint attach rates could likely increase to more than 40% from last year’s 25%, but its market share could be down from 90% last year, according to one source.