Yole Intelligence, part of Yole Group, has released its brand-new RF Annual Report – RF Front-End for Mobile 2023 – which aims to provide a comprehensive view of the RF front-end market from the system level down to the wafer level. It encompasses the ecosystem and technology landscape while providing insight to anticipate technology disruption.
Outlines of the “RF Front-End for Mobile 2023” Report Include:
- The total RF front-end market will reach about US$26.9 billion in 2028 with a CAGR22-28 of ~5.8%.
- 5G is improving the quality of service delivered to the user by providing larger network capacity, better radio efficiency, and scalable latency.
- These are challenging times for the cellphone industry. Will emerging markets be the key?
- With the increase in the RF front-end BOM, players are striving for differentiation.
The cell phone market recovered in 2021 following the dip caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. However, pre-COVID-19 levels have not been reached due to chip supply shortages. Furthermore, in 2022, the smartphone industry was seriously impacted following a global macroeconomic downturn: a market decline with high inflation caused by geopolitical tensions such as the Russia-Ukraine war and tensions between China and Taiwan. This downturn resulted in consumer hesitancy in purchasing new phones, thus pushing OEMs to enter an inventory correction phase. In addition, the Zero-Covid policy in China further destabilized the smartphone manufacturing industry.
Cédric Malaquin, Team Lead Analyst of RF activity within the Power & Wireless Division at Yole Intelligence, stated: “Despite these challenging conditions, 5G phone production reached parity with 4G phone production in 2022, though the growth rate was significantly less than the industry’s expectation. 5G’s hype has evaporated; however, at Yole Intelligence, we expect further penetration in the smartphone market as OEMs and MNOs further push deployment of this technology.”
The RF front-end market leaped forward in 2021, reaching over US$19 billion as an effect of the post-COVID-19 recovery and 5G penetration. But the 2022 calendar year ended flat following the smartphone market decline associated with lower-than-expected 5G penetration. Consequently, the BOM growth engine has been in low gear. As per the moderate smartphone growth expected toward 2028, along with the limited potential for 5G penetration, Yole Intelligence forecasts a mid-single digit CAGR for the RF front-end market, which we expect to reach US$26.9 billion by 2028. Meanwhile, the market opportunity is huge, and new 5G technical features will keep driving RF front-end technology innovations. Mid to long term, there are developments in the pipeline, and investments are being made to prepare for the next growth wave, which will emerge from 5G advanced and the forthcoming 6G.
Cédric Malaquin comments: “In 2021, Qualcomm led the market with its end-to-end approach, followed by Broadcom’s custom PA module offering. Skyworks and Qorvo have similar company profiles with broad RF portfolios serving all market segments, although Skyworks has been more exposed to increased Chinese competition. Murata’s revenue was low, suffering from growing competition for its filters, and it is restructuring its module portfolio. In 2022, traditional players were impacted by the deterioration in the macroeconomic environment. Except for Broadcom, revenues generated by companies in RF front-end-related segments have decreased”.
The Chinese RF front-end ecosystem has been growing, with fabless companies mainly emerging, most taking a share of their local market. Maxscend, Vanchip, and Smarter Micro are the most relevant examples, though Maxscend recently invested in upgrading to a fab-lite business model. In addition, there is a long list of companies with great ambitions and access to financial capital through public offerings on the STAR market. However, not all initiatives will succeed, and we expect consolidation to happen in the mid-term.
To sum up, Chinese RF front-end players are capturing a limited fraction of the market, as OEMs still rely on the leading players for their premium products, but the largest Chinese companies are on their way to catching up with the leaders.
Click here to view the "RF Front-End for Mobile 2023" report.
