Boston, MA - April 28, 2015 - The global smartphone applications processor (AP) market registered a robust 21 percent year-over-year growth to reach $20.9 billion in calendar year 2014, according to Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies (HCT) service report, “Smartphone Apps Processor Market Share 2014: Qualcomm, Apple and MediaTek Grab Top-3 Spots.”

This research report from Strategy Analytics estimates Qualcomm, Apple, MediaTek, Spreadtrum and Samsung LSI captured the top-five revenue spots in the global smartphone AP market in calendar year 2014. Qualcomm once again topped the smartphone AP market with 52 percent revenue share, followed by Apple with 18 percent revenue share and MediaTek with 14 percent revenue share.

According to Sravan Kundojjala, Associate Director, "Yet again Qualcomm capitalised on its strong momentum for its high tier Snapdragon chips,  Snapdragon 801 & 805 and maintained the top spot in smartphone APs in 2014. However, Qualcomm’s competitors HiSilicon, Intel, and MediaTek made good progress and out-grew Qualcomm. Strategy Analytics believes that 2015 is shaping up to be a challenging year for Qualcomm, thanks to increased competition in 64-bit APs and LTE-integrated APs."

According to Stuart Robinson, Executive Director of the Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies service, "Strategy Analytics estimates that Samsung LSI’s 2014 smartphone AP shipment share reached its lowest in the last six years as its Exynos chips steadily lost ground to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips in flagship devices. Samsung LSI is looking to regain share with the help of 14 nm-based smartphone APs and Strategy Analytics believes that the latest Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge design-wins bode well for Samsung LSI in 2015."