As Bluetooth technology advances and smartphone brands sequentially remove the 3.5-mm headphone jack from their phones, the TWS (True Wireless Stereo) headset market has continued to grow, according to MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute), a major government think tank and IT research institute in Taiwan. “Eying on the growth potential of TWS headsets, IC design houses have tapped into this market by in-house manufacturing their own SoCs (System on Chips), including Bluetooth SoC, for TWS headsets to improve end-market user experience,” said Angela Huang, industry analyst with MIC.

Application IC Suppliers for TWS Headsets

Note: x indicates the parameter has not yet disclosed

Source: Respective companies, compiled by MIC, April 2021

Based on MIC’s findings, more and more IC suppliers are extending their reach to TWS headsets by in-house developing Bluetooth SoCs (System on Chip). For instance, Qualcomm, Airoha Technology, and Bestechnic have launched their own Bluetooth SoCs to help reduce current consumption as there is generally a trade-off between current consumption and transmission power when using conventional Bluetooth SoCs.

To know more about this topic, please visit:  Development Trends of Application Chips for TWS Headsets (pre-order), The Taiwanese Fabless IC Industry, 1Q 2021, Taiwanese IC Packaging & Testing Industry, 1Q 2021, Leading Chipmakers’ Startup Investment Activity and Trends: Intel, Qualcomm, and Nvidia (pre-order), Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Industry, 1Q 2021