Competition in 5G Terminals
Competition in the handset and component industries is expected to further intensify prior to the advent of the era of 5G mobile communications next year. By country, the US, China, Korea, and Japan are expected to rise as major 5G handset markets.
Intel, Samsung and Huawei challenged Qualcomm in the sector of chipsets which are a key component for 5G terminals. Experts say that much attention is being paid to competition to secure supremacy in 5G commercialization between Qualcomm that wants to maintain its competitiveness in the 5G era continuing from the 4G era and other parts makers.
According to market researcher Techno System Research (TSR) on March 18, shipments of 5G handsets are projected to reach 5.8 million units next year. It is expected that shipments will more than double each year -- 100 million units in 2020, 200 million units in 2021, and 400 million units in 2022.
In this forecast, 5G smartphones will take the lion’s share. Based on this, the shipments of 5G smartphones in 2020 will reach 90 million units, accounting for 5% of all smartphone shipments, and by 2022 to 380 million units, 20% of the total market.
The US, China, Korea, and Japan are expected to be leading players in the 5G handset market just like the 4G handset market. In Korea, work is being accelerated with the start of the commercialization of the world's first 5G in March of next year. In particular, a 5G pilot service introduced during the PyeongChang Winter Olympics is expected to support Korea in the selection of the 5G standard scheduled for June.
In addition to the competition over 5G terminals, competition for chipsets, the core part for 5G terminals, is also heating up.
Before the opening of the new handset market after Long Term Evolution (LTE), a lot of attention is being paid to whether or not other companies will overtake Qualcomm in the new handset market. Qualcomm, which introduced the 5G chipset Snapdragon X50 in 2016 for the first time in the world, is planning to continue to take the initiative in the 5G era as well. To this end, Qualcomm is strengthening cooperation with Verizon and AT&T in the US, China Mobile in China and KT in Korea.
Intel, which unveiled the 5G NR chipset at the end of 2017, is expected to supply its chipsets in the third quarter of next year, a little later than Qualcomm. Intel is currently developing an iPhone that supports 5G communication standards with Apple so Intel's chipset is expected to be loaded into the iPhone series.
Samsung is aiming to participate in the market around the same time as Qualcomm with the 5G chipset Exynos 5G opened to major smartphone makers at the recent Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018. Huawei, which unveiled the 5G chipset 5G01 at the MWC 2018, entered the market, too.
"Transition into the 5G era will affect many related industries," an industry observer said. "In order to provide high-quality services, various parts such as those for 5G networks, terminals and chipsets must be prepared. Thus it is important for wireless telecom companies to cooperate and build ecosystems with parts markers."