Dual-core processors gained strong traction during last year, accounting for nearly 20% of total smartphone processors shipped, according to the Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies (HCT) service.
Samsung led this trend with 60% volume share, followed by Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and NVIDIA. The Korean company has strong iPhone sales to thank for its top position, since they make Apple’s A5 processors.
Stand-alone applications processors accounted for 90% of total dual-cores shipped in 2011. Single-core applications processors are much more likely to be integrated though, with 72% of total single-core processor chips shipped were integrated with baseband applications processors in 2011.
As part of its report, Strategy Analytics also had some advice for NVIDIA, which was first on the market with a quad-core processor — the company’s Senior Analyst Sravan Kundojjala said that the Tegra maker needs to focus on high volume tier-one design-wins in 2012 in order to maintain its first-mover advantage.
Finally, the research company is bullish on Qualcomm, which is said to be well-positioned to make significant share gains in 2012 with the help of its LTE-integrated dual-core Snapdragon processor MSM8960.