Abstract

China's growing MP4 market offers enormous opportunities for Chinese MP4 chip makers. The fact that MP4 players can play both audio and video is attracting audio and video chip makers into this emerging field. These companies include MP3 maker Actions Semiconductor, PC camera chip maker Vimicro, and mobile phone multimedia chip makers Anyka, Shanghai Jade Technology, and Chipnuts. All are expanding upon their existing technologies to release MP4 solutions.

Chinese MP4 player decoder design houses are crossing the technological threshold by relying on their accumulated audio/video processing technology and the assistance of CPU cores from ARM and MIPS. Further analysis into the advantages of each company shows more. Actions Semiconductor is an MP3 chip maker, and many MP4 products are launched by MP3 companies. Thus, Actions has a definite advantage in terms of customer relationships. As a company with MP3 chip capabilities in its own right, Actions also has a firm grasp of audio processing technology. On the other hand, Rockchip was the first company to enter the MP4 market and offers highly mature products, therefore giving it advantages. Vimicro is a PC camera chip maker with relatively strong capabilities in the area of image processing. Vimicro's original customers include PC companies, which also give it an advantage. Finally, Anyka, Shanghai Jade Technology and Chipnuts are companies that have a distinct level of control regarding digital signal processing.

In conclusion, MP4 players are still consumer electronics products. Price sensitivity is rather high, and the technological capabilities of downstream Chinese MP4 companies differ widely. Complete systems solutions will be a key element competition.

Appendix

Research Scope

This report analyzes the company backgrounds, R&D, products and customer portfolios of Chinese MP4 decoder design houses, including Actions Semiconductor, Anyka, Fuzhou Rockchip, Vimicro, Shanghai Jade Technology, and Chipnuts.

Glossary of Terms

List of Companies