下一匹智能机黑马将来自中国二、三线厂商

已经与中国手机市场建立紧密连结的台湾芯片设计业者联发科(Mediatek)总经理谢清江(Ching-Jiang Hsieh)认为，中国将会是下一波智能手机浪潮的动力来源。 “我们预计今年手机芯片出货量可达5,000万颗，大幅超越去年的1,000万颗；”谢清江在2月底的行动通讯世界大会(MWC)上接受美国EETimes编辑访问时表示：“今年功能型手机出货将首度呈现衰退──该类手机去年出货表现是持平──主因是智能手机出货持续成长。”

联发科(Mediatek)总经理谢清江(Ching-Jiang Hsieh)

谢清江的看法与多数市场分析师一致。根据Linley Group负责人Linley Gwennap预测，到 2014年，全球智能手机出货量将达6亿支，届时将有70%的整合型应用处理器/基频芯片是供给这类手机使用，该比例在2010年仅40%。 此外，Strategy Analytics分析师指出，中国已经在 2011年第三季超越美国跃升全球最大智能手机市场，主因是中国电信业者推出多款价格低于160美元的平价智能手机，激励中国智能手机市场快速成长。 联发科是否能引领这波中国智能手机浪潮，还有待观察；而这家台湾芯片设计业者正面临一家快速崛起、同样瞄准该市场的竞争对手──中国本土无晶圆厂芯片设计业者展讯通信(Spreadtrum Communications)。 与联发科同调，展讯最近也锁定价位在100~160美元的平价智能手机市场，推出GHz等级的ARM Cortex A9核心应用处理器。国际智能手机芯片大厂高通(Qualcomm)也逐渐将焦点集中在整合型手机芯片产品。 谢清江表示，联发科的部分优势所在，是与重量级中国手机制造商建立的紧密关系以及对这些伙伴的了解；他指出，目前中国四家顶尖手机制造商──华为 (Huawei)、联想(Lenovo)、TCL与中兴(ZTE)──贡献联发科手机芯片业务的四成，其余六成则来自100家左右的小客户。 这四家手机大厂不只在中国本土市场颇具份量，其出货至海外的产品也逐渐增加；而联发科协助这些伙伴快速填补中低阶产品线的空缺。 华为旗下的芯片设计公司海思(HiSilicon)已经开发自家应用处理器好一段时间；该总部位于上海的设计团队也在 2012年MWC 发表一款4核心芯片，号称其绘图处理性能可与Nvidia的Tegra 3分庭抗礼。 不过谢清江指出，市场虽然因为智能手机的各种热门多媒体应用程序，而特别关注于强调绘图处理性能的产品，但预期在接下来几年，当智能手机市场以45%的成长率速度扩张之同时，该类整合绘图处理功能的芯片市场成长率可能不到2%。 本文下一页：势力庞大的中国二、三线手机厂商 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载

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{pagination} 联发科手机芯片业务的六成，是来自许多知名不高的中小型中国手机厂商；谢清江将其中部分在中国本地具品牌知名度、但没有出货至海外的厂商定义为二线，包括深圳业者金立通讯(Gionee Communication Equipment)、OPPO Electronics、BBK等。 至于三线手机厂商，指的是无自有品牌的业者；这些厂商主要是扮演ODM角色，为主要来自中国与印度的零售业者生产贴牌手机。 这些ODM手机厂较大成分是制造者，而非设计者，其中有数家位于上海的厂商，是委托包括联发科在内的外部研发团队协助其工程方面的任务，例如芯讯通(Sim Com Wireless Solutions；为晨讯科技旗下子公司)。 针对这些二、三线伙伴，联发科可提供完整的参考设计解决方案协助他们加速产品上市时程；据了解，这类手机厂商通常自己负责产品的显示器、内存容量等方面的设计，其余与Android平台客制化设计相关的细部工作就交由联发科工程师负责。 联发科表示，该公司拥有上百名Android软件工程师，可协助客户进行客制化设计；由于PC大厂正尝试由“预铸”式的微软(Microsoft) Windows平台，跨足Android原始世界，这类人才在台湾也受到高度重视。 竞争对手展讯近来以产品降价策略抢市，联发科则以本身的技术优势自诩；该公司最新推出的MT6515芯片除了支持中国TD-SCDMA标准，且基于联发科在智能型电视芯片方面的技术，可支持包括3D自动立体显示(auto-stereoscopic) 等高阶功能。 藉由在2007年收购ADI的基频芯片部门，联发科投入整合式手机芯片开发的时间将对较早；展讯则是在去年藉由投资MobilePeak取得基频技术。谢清江表示，联发科最新一代芯片采用40纳米制程，预计明年将推出28纳米制程设计。 看来掀起这一波中国智能手机市场浪潮的主力，将会来自于数量庞大的二、三线厂商，并非顶尖手机大厂；其未来发展值得密切关注。

联发科最新的手机方案支持3D游戏，市场售价低于160美金STvesmc

编译：Judith Cheng 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 参考英文原文：China unknowns may be next smartphone stars，by Rick Merritt

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• 英特尔表示智能机专注安卓OS，没有WP8计划STvesmc

{pagination} China unknowns may be next smartphone stars Rick Merritt Mediatek president Ching-Jiang Hsieh has been forging tight links with China’s handset makers, believing they will be the source of the next big wave of smartphones. BARCELONA – Ching-Jiang Hsieh has been forging tight links with China’s handset makers. The president of Mediatek believes they will be the source of the next big wave of smartphones. “We will sell 50 million handset chip sets this year, up from 10 million last year,” said Hsieh in an interview with EE Times at the Mobile World Congress in late February. “This year feature phones will decline for the first time—they were almost flat last year—because smartphones are growing,” he said. Market watchers agree. As many as 600 million smartphones will ship in 2014, and as many as half of them will be low cost models replacing feature phones, according to Linley Gwennap, principal of the Linley Group (Mountain View, Calif.). Chips that integrate apps processors and basebands will power 70 percent of those handsets, up from 40 percent in 2010, Gwennap predicts. Likewise, Strategy Analytics said China overtook the US as the world’s biggest smartphone market in the third quarter of 2011. The shift was largely thanks to China’s cellular carriers who bought lots of models that cost less than US$160, making it the fastest growing segment. Whether Mediatek can lead this new wave is an open question. The Taiwan company is battling with one of China’s fastest rising fabless companies, Spreadtrum Communications Inc., that also has its eyes on this market. Like Mediatek, Spreadtrum recently released GHz-class ARM Cortex A9 applications processors to serve the market for smartphones that hit a $100-$160 price point. Smartphone chip giant Qualcomm also is focusing increasingly on integrated chips. Hsieh said part of Mediatek’s edge is its relationships with and understanding of the China handset makers who he thinks will drive the shift. Four of China’s top handset makers--Huawei, Lenovo, TCL and ZTE—make up 40 percent of Mediatek’s handset business, and a diverse set of 100 other companies make up the rest, he said. The big four are not only well known in China but have growing export businesses. Mediatek helps these OEMs quickly fill out the middle and low-end tiers of product lines. Huawei’s HiSilicon group has been making its own applications processors for some time. The Shanghai based team announced a quad-core chip at Mobile World Congress with souped up graphics it claimed beat Nvidia’s Tegra 3. A lot of attention gets paid to such image products by the gadget-crazed media. But that segment of the market will grow at a rate a little less than two percent over the next few years while the overall smartphone pie expands by as much as 45 percent, Hsieh said. China's second and third tiers The China handset OEMs who make up 60 percent of Mediatek’s business are not household names. Some are what Hsieh refers to as second tier companies who have a respected brand in China, but no real export business. They include three Shenzhen companies Gionee Communication Equipment Ltd., OPPO Electronics Corp. Ltd, and BBK. Then there is a wider group of third tier players. These companies have no brands of their own. They make handsets on an ODM basis for retailers mainly in India and China who slap their own names on the phones. Many of these ODMs are more manufacturers than designers. Several reside in Shanghai where there are plenty of external R&D teams from chip makers like Mediatek and others to help with the engineering work. They include companies such Sim Com Wireless Solutions Co. Ltd. With all these companies, Mediatek has adopted an approach of providing full reference designs to speed them to market. The handset maker typically specifies the industrial design, perhaps the display and the amount of memory. Mediatek’s engineers handle the rest, including a lot of the work customizing Google Android for the particulars of the design. Mediatek claims it has hundreds of Android software engineers who can help wrestle the open source code into the needs of a particular design. Such expertise is highly valued in Taiwan these days where the big computer ODMs there are trying to make the shift from Microsoft’s pre-baked Windows to the wild and wooly world of Android. The Taiwan chip maker claims it has a tech edge over Spreadtrum, its Shanghai based competitor that is reportedly undercutting it in prices. Mediatek’s latest offering, the MT6515, supports the China TD-SCDMA standard and can handle high-end features such as auto-stereoscopic 3-D, thanks to technology borrowed from Mediatek smart TV chips. Mediatek was relatively early getting into the integrated handset chips, acquiring the baseband group of Analog Devices Inc. in 2007. Spreadtrum acquired baseband technology just last year with its investment in MobilePeak. In addition, Hsieh notes his latest chips are in 40 nm process technology and he will push into the 28 nm node with designs coming next year. It remains to be seen whether China and Mediatek ride the next big wave in smartphones, a wave coming from the bottom rather than the top. But this is clearly the phone zone to watch.