Global number of GPS IC shipments to approach 450mn in 2010

LONDON, UK: While GPS IC shipment growth slowed during 2009, next year should see a 30 percent increase in shipments.

The unabated interest in GPS-enabled smartphones during the recession has been a life-saver for the GPS IC industry, and future growth will be fueled by the integration of GPS in feature phones across Europe and Asia, and its appearance in an ever-growing number of new consumer form factors such as MIDs, netbooks, media players, gaming consoles, GPS watches, digital cameras, and connected cars.

“With GPS well on the way to becoming a ubiquitous feature across the mobile consumer space, GPS chipsets are subject to increasingly challenging requirements,” says ABI Research practice director Dominique Bonte.

“Many new LBS services such as social networking, tracking, logging, and geo-tagging require always-on, instant operation even in the absence of network assistance and without sacrificing battery life or increasing cost. This has prompted both u-blox and CSR to design their new u-blox 6 and SiRFStar IV / SiRFaware architectures, optimized for battery-powered portable devices.”

Other important trends include the adoption of post-processing for geo-tagging and tracking applications as implemented by u-blox in its “Capture & Process” technology, support for new GNSS systems such as Glonass and Galileo, jammer remover functionality, sensor support, System-on-Chip (SoC) implementations such as STMicroelectronics’ Cartesio+ application processor and Broadcom’s BCM4760 “PND-on-a-chip”, and software-based GPS (Fastrax).

Military spending and GaN adoption driving RF power semiconductor markets

SCOTTSDALE, USA: Although spending on RF power semiconductors in wireless infrastructure markets has continued to stagnate, other markets – notably the military -– are seeing increased activity.

Also, according to a new study from ABI Research, gallium nitride –- long seen as a promising new “material of choice” for RF power semiconductors -– is finally starting to gain some market traction. The research indicates that total available market for RF power semiconductors in 2009 approaches $1 billion.

“Gallium nitride (GaN) has markedly increased its market share in 2009 and is forecast to be a significant force by 2014,” notes ABI Research Director Lance Wilson.

“It bridges the gap between two older technologies, exhibiting the high-frequency performance of gallium arsenide combined with the power handling capabilities of silicon LDMOS. It is now a mainstream technology which has achieved measurable market share and in future will capture a significant part of the market.”

The vertical market showing the strongest uptick in the RF power semiconductor business has been the military, which Wilson describes as being “now a very significant market.” While the producers of these devices are located in the major industrialized countries, the military market is now so global that end equipment buyers can be from anywhere.

“RF Power Semiconductors” examines RF power semiconductor devices that have power outputs of greater than 5 watts and operate at frequencies of up to 3.8GHz, which represent the bulk of applications in use today. The last study ABI Research published on this topic appeared late in 2007.

With the current release, analysis of the six main vertical segments (wireless infrastructure; military; industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM); broadcast; commercial avionics and air traffic control; and non-cellular communications) which was previously subdivided into 24 sub-segments, is expanded to 29 sub-segments.

TI tops ABI Research's MID platforms vendor matrix ranking

NEW YORK, USA: Texas Instruments has been ranked at the top of the latest Vendor Matrix released by ABI Research.

NVIDIA and Freescale Semiconductor claimed the second and third spots in the company’s new evaluation of worldwide Mobile Internet Device (MID) platform vendors.

“Congratulations to TI for taking the MID Platforms vendor title for the second time,” said Jeff Orr, senior analyst.

“The company’s current MID platforms, incorporating ARM processor cores, excelled in several categories, including the implementation of every mobile operating system we examined –- from Windows Mobile to Palm’s webOS.”

Seven PC and mobile operating systems were factored into scoring. NVIDIA and Freescale represent the next generation of multimedia-rich MID platforms, which are expected to debut during the second half of 2009.

The Vendor Matrix is an analytical tool developed by ABI Research to provide a clear understanding of vendors’ positions in specific markets. Vendors are assessed on the important parameters of “innovation” and “implementation” across several criteria unique to each vendor matrix.

For this particular matrix, under "innovation," ABI Research examined these platforms’ connectivity options, their level of voice support, the capabilities of their processors, their displays, and the integration and support services available to licensees and manufacturers of the MID platform.

“TI received perfect scores for its range of voice support, display capabilities and integration support services,” notes Orr. “The company offers development tools, reference designs and consultative services necessary to accelerate MID design programs into manufacturing.”

Under "implementation," ABI Research scrutinized the following criteria: existing customer types (ie. what PC system, mobile handset and consumer electronics vendors are currently buying or licensing the MID platform or architecture); commercially available products, current PC operating system support, and existing mobile operating system support.

Despite automotive slump, by 2010 12 percent of new cars will ship with embedded telematics

LONDON, UK: Amidst a very challenging automotive environment rife with mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies, and rumors of more to come, OEMs continue to enhance existing embedded and hybrid telematics services and/or launch new ones, driving global penetration rates in new cars to 12 percent in 2010 and 43 percent in 2014.

"OEM telematics is gaining momentum across the globe. With GM’s OnStar and Ford’s SYNC to be joined by telematics solutions from Toyota and Chrysler launching later this year, the US remains the most competitive market," says ABI Research practice director Dominique Bonte. "At the same time Toyota and GM will expand into the Chinese market, while government regulation in Brazil and the EU will drive uptake in Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe."

Safety and security features such as emergency calling (eCall), breakdown assistance (bCall) and remote diagnostics remain the most popular, but connected infotainment such as off-board navigation, online local search, concierge services, and Internet access offered by OEMs such as BMW are enjoying increasing interest.

While embedded aftermarket solutions offered by companies such as LoJack and OCTO Telematics remain popular in specific markets for stolen vehicle tracking and PAYD insurance, new affordable portable and converged consumer telematics are bringing features such as geofencing, speed monitoring and basic diagnostics to a wider audience.

ABI Research expects that by offering multiple safety, cost and entertainment benefits to different stakeholders such as governments, car manufacturers and dealers, and end-users, consumer telematics will become a standard automotive feature in developed regions by 2015.

However, this evolution will require the removal of barriers such as high cost and long development cycles. Standardization initiatives such as the Next Generation Telematics Protocol (NGTP) and the adoption of open source automotive software development platforms supported by the recently announced GENIVI consortium will help.