Research Reports

Overview

Summary
With the global semiconductor industry increasingly adopting specialization, the design and development of application processor (AP) and system on a chip (SoC) for smartphones are primarily undertaken by integrated circuit (IC) design companies. However, in the wake of Apple’s successful release of in-house developed chips, various smartphone brands have started to adopt the same strategy.

For smartphone brands, developing semiconductor components in-house requires a significant initial investment. Additionally, a SoC consists of various modules and architectures, such as image signal processors (ISP) and modems. Chip designers are tested to see if they can achieve the best balance between performance and power consumption by optimizing the allocation of resources between these modules and architectures. Overall, developing semiconductor components in-house is a complex task for smartphone brands without sufficient prior experience and technological expertise. Nevertheless, driven by various motivations, smartphone brands still want to pursue this goal.

Table of Contents
1. Drivers behind Smartphone Brands’ Efforts in Developing Their Own Chips

2. In-house Chip Development of Smartphone Brands
  (1) Apple
  (2) Samsung
  (3) Samsung
  (4) Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo
  (5) Huawei

3. Risks and Challenges That Smartphone Brands Face in Developing In-House Chips and Their Effects on the IC Design Industry

4. TRI’s View
  (1) With Market Conditions Less Ideal than Before, Smartphone Brands Face Numerous Challenges as
  They Develop Their Own Chips
  (2) Chinese Smartphone Brand Will Continue to Develop Function-Specific Chips to Generate Product
  Differentiation

＜Total Pages：13＞