Abstract

After a four-year incubation period, in 2006 - 2007 the global 3G mobile communications market will finally begin to take off. The provision of 3G service will no longer be confined to a handful of operators, including SKT, KTF, KDDI, NTT DoCoMo, Hutchison and Vodafone; worldwide, a very large number of mobile operators will be rolling out 3G service. With the outlook for 3G becoming brighter, the leading international handset vendors - including Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson - began to introduce a more comprehensive range of 3G handsets in 2005. It is anticipated that, by 2006, these leading vendors will begin to put other vendors that had moved into 3G at an earlier date - such as NEC, Motorola and LG - under serious competitive pressure. Given the significant differences that exist between 2G/2.5G and 3G solution architectures, providers that are weak in application processor R&D will find that the 3G era presents them with a serious challenge. Currently, Qualcomm and EMP are the leading 3G solution providers, but by 2006 the solutions developed by TI, Infineon and Freescale will have reached a higher level of maturity, challenging Qualcomm's and EMP's domination of the market.

Appendix

List of Companies