PRESS RELEASE
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November 2009: Press Release |
Shipments of mobile WiMAX chipsets will reach 4 million by the end
of 2009
Next challenge for most of the WiMAX chipset vendors will be to find the path to LTE
MONTREAL, CANADA and SAN DIEGO, USA, November 17th, 2009 –Shipments of mobile WiMAX
chipsets will reach 4 million by the end of 2009 according to the latest research by Maravedis, who in
partnership with Reveal Wireless released its new report “WiMAX Wave2 Subscriber Station Chipset
Vendors Competitive Analysis.”
Maravedis and Reveal Wireless found that the WiMAX subscriber station chipset ecosystem is acutely
fragmented, with more than 14 chipset vendors competing for market share. “This puts pressure on
vendors with insufficient customer traction, lacking funding or scale, or offering only partial chipset
solutions,” said Adlane Fellah, Maravedis CEO and Founder and co-author of the report.
Several early movers that entered the WiMAX market with fixed or Wave1 mobile solutions are now
shipping Wave2 compliant chipsets, mainly composed of a base-band chip and companion RF
transceiver IC. “However, most of the available chipsets are not highly optimized because they were
compelled to cover a broad range of application segments,” noted Pascal Deriot, Senior Analyst and coauthor
of the report.
“We believe that WiMAX mass market adoption requires ubiquitous coverage and IOT mature, sub $10
chipsets that are power and performance optimized for each application-specific segment,” he added.
This research provides a detailed comparison of the key WiMAX chipset vendors, identifying system
architectures, estimating chipset and system BOM, cost of available devices, such as CPEs, USB
dongles or Express Cards, and researching vendor product roadmaps and SWOT. The report covers over
29 base-band, RF IC and module solutions from 14 WiMAX vendors, and profiles the five key players– Beceem, GCT, Intel, Samsung and Sequans – offering an in-depth analysis of each chipset.
SELECT KEY FINDINGS
-
The five key players have introduced differentiated chipset solutions, enabling them to gain
significant leadership in their target market segments.
- Few WiMAX chipset players have the scale to effectively address all segments; no global leader
has emerged in 2009.
- Mixed process technologies and packaging approach have been launched in 2009, from
monolithic solutions to System-In-Package implementations to save cost and space.
- Similar to WiFi or 3GPP/3GPP2 platforms, vendors leverage their first or second generations to
further reduce chipset cost and improve footprint, Bill Of Material and performance.
- Three chipset vendors are best positioned to achieve the US$10 price target through base-band
and RF monolithic die integration in 65-nm.
- The WiMAX market is not large enough to support 14 chipset vendors. Consolidations, exits and
transitions toward LTE are expected in the next two years.
“The WiMAX chipset competitive report brings tremendous qualitative information on the key WiMAX
chipset players, with a level of analysis and projection superior to any recent reports. Expertise in product
development combined with a strategic vision of the market make this report a true benchmark” said
Steven Caliguri, VP Business Development for Acorn Technologies Inc.
"We purchased the report from Reveal Wireless, and were very impressed at the amount of precise
information they have gathered. Their approach is a unique combination of traditional market analysis and
teardown reports, with a genuine understanding of the market dynamics that makes it a very valuable
tool. It has been very useful to us in our approach not only of competitive analysis, but also future
roadmap planning," added Ambroise Popper, Director of Product Management at Sequans.
The report also analyses the difficult choices faced by small chipset players with limited budgets. The
next challenge for most WiMAX chipset vendors will be to find the right balance of R&D investments in an
LTE transition and a more integrated and cost effective path for their WiMAX solution.
About Maravedis
MARAVEDIS is a leading analyst firm focusing on disruptive technologies including smart networks using
WiMAX, IEEE, and 3GPP/LTE. Maravedis works with system and service providers, vendors, regulators,
and institutional investors. Learn more at www.maravedis-bwa.com.
# # #
For More Information:
Emma Hancox, Marketing Director, Maravedis Inc.
Tel: +1 514 992-3662
emma@maravedis-bwa.com
