Marvell scores in China with Asus smartphones
First fruits of its investment in the TD-SCDMA and oPhone platforms, targeting affordable 3G devices
Published: 25 February, 2011
READ MORE: China | Marvell Technology | Handset | TD-SCDMA
Marvell stole a march on rivals for the Chinese handset market three years ago, when it helped China Mobile create its oPhone hardware/software platform. Now it is enjoying some fruits of its headstart in Chinese 3G, underpinning a new mass market smartphone range from Asustek.
The midrange handsets run China Mobile's TD-SCDMA 3G technology and run on the integrated chipset that Marvell designed as a result of its oPhone project. This PXA920 chipset integrates and app processor and baseband, and is the first single-chip offering for the Chinese 3G standard. Though oPhone is not exclusive to one chip supplier, Marvell took the lead and also hopes to push the platform abroad, following a decision by AT&T to license oPhone too. The platform enables 3G phones with midrange smartphone capabilities for less than CNY1,000 ($147).
Marvell commented when it first unveiled its silicon: "When China Mobile began its mission two years ago to build an affordable open architecture smartphone based on Google's Android platform, Marvell was the only major silicon partner who committed to the program. Now, two years on ... it has the global electronics industry watching the emergence of a significant new player in chipmaking."
The Asus-branded handsets will be one of several ranges targeting the affordable smartphone space in China, where 3G uptake has been limited so far by the shortage of low cost but functional devices. Marvell co-founder Weili Dai commented: "I believe the Asus TD smartphones will be just the beginning of mass deployment of cost effective, advanced TD-SCDMA based smartphones throughout China."
The Asus deal could see Marvell gaining ground in China against MediaTek, which is fighting to move up from its low cost base. Marvell's flagship handset customer is RIM, but it has struggled to gain deals beyond the BlackBerry maker, despite showing off advanced smartphone processors in its Armada line, including a future quad-core model.
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