iPhone Win Helps Broadcom Top ABI’s GPS List

GPS Reviews | GPS Software Hub | July 20, 2008 at 10:40 am

Market research firm ABI Research has ranked Broadcom at the top of its latest GPS Vendor Matrix analysis, noting that Broadcom got the nod to supply the GPS silicon in the second generation Apple iPhone. Rounding out ABI’s top 10 are: Atheros, NXP, Texas Instruments, SiRF, Qualcomm, u-blox, SkyTraq, Maxim, and Nemerix.

The Vendor Matrix is an analytical tool developed by ABI Research to examine vendors’ positions in specific markets, according to the firm. For this particular matrix, ABI Research examined each company’s products in terms of multiple RF integration, the companies’ RF ICs, ICs, and single-chip implementations. It also evaluated products’ assisted-GPS and their satellite-based augmentation system support (SBAS), such as EGNOS and WAAS.

ABI Research also scrutinized the following criteria: market share; consumer market focus; professional, industrial, and military market focus; whether the vendors have their own in-house manufacturing or subcontract manufacturing — what’s referred to as fabless; and their key customer wins.

What’s notable about the ABI list is that the top three firms are not names traditionally associated with GPS receivers; all three are large companies that acquired smaller GPS chip makers. Wireless specialist Broadcom wasn’t even in the GPS business until last year, when it acquired Global Locate. Similarly, Atheros Communications, ranked no. 2 on ABI’s list, entered the market with its acquisition of GPS chip maker u-Nav Microelectronics in December 2007, while no. 3 on the list, NXP Semiconductors, acquired fabless GPS chip maker GloNav in December 2007 as well.

“Following the acquisition of fabless GPS-specific manufacturer Global Locate last year, Broadcom became the first GPS chipset vendor with a hosted assisted-GPS solution and a wide area reference network for the provision of GPS assistance data,” said Dominique Bonte, an ABI Research principal analyst. “Broadcom’s experience in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, FM radio, and GPS technology puts the company in a good position to compete in the anticipated multiple-RF integrated GPS solutions market, with integrated Bluetooth/GPS chipsets expected to be available in 2009. Broadcom is also the supplier of the GPS-chipset in the new 3G iPhone.”

ABI further noted that Atheros plans to develop integrated single-die RF solutions that will combine Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS, while NXP plans to target the 3G mobile phone segment, as well as portable navigation devices.

ABI Research’s top-10 list of GPS chip makers on its Vendor Matrix are as follows: