"Wintel" is the term for years must have a Windows computer running Intel chips. Now, a similar expression appears smartphones "Quadroid."
Quadroid is a term that refers to the use Qualcomm chips in the smartphone that runs Android mobile operating system. The term was created in a recent report PRTM board, may take, especially because Qualcomm provides 77% of chips used in the Google Android phone. And the alliance is expected to grow Quadroid.
As was the Wintel PC Quadroid could reduce the profit margin for the smartphone manufacturer, say some analysts. This may seem like a good thing for consumers, but perhaps not so good for many cell phone manufacturers.
Android itself is growing every quarter. A dozen mobile phone manufacturers around the world have produced more than 90 different models of Android phones. Platform is growing, having increased by 25% of all smartphones in the third quarter, up nearly 4% in the third quarter of 2009, according to a Gartner market research. Many analysts believe that Android will be the No. 2 smartphone operating system at the end of 2010, behind Nokia Symbian.
PRTM has recently published a report called Android a "game-change" for a market share large enough and growing fast. Android role is made possible in part by the time "warp speed" to start the cycle and arrival of designing a new phone to use Qualcomm chips in the Android phone. The cycle time is important to how manufacturers can increase the gross margin.
In 2008, PRTM has noted, QSD8250 Qualcomm chipset and Android Donut 1.6 release caused the cycle produced by an average of eight months for a variety of manufacturers. At the end of 2009, the cycle time of 4.5 months with the Qualcomm MSM7227 chipset, is used with the release of Android 2.1 Eclair, PRTM said.
It may not be a victory for manufacturers of mobile
In his report, PRTM Quadroid asked if the combination could be a new Wintel, which is not necessarily a good thing for manufacturers of mobile phones. "For years, Intel has to create value more than Microsoft and PC makers," the report PRTM. "Is Quadroid in new Wintel?"
PRTM believes that the emergence and other factors Quadroid lower gross margin for the manufacturer of phones to new lows - about 8% to 10% - that PC makers like Acer and Lenovo have seen great . "Some combined companies can not survive," says PRTM.
Many analysts expect a number of factors will be fewer major mobile phone manufacturers, perhaps only three to five.
Dan Hays, a partner at PRTM, said in an interview that is fair to the industry with several players to consolidate into a few. With Quadroid, he said, "it becomes difficult to say a phone based on Android on the other, and while application developers real love, he raises the bar for a minimum of phone functions need to do well . Standardization in Quadroid was conducted in exactly the same direction as happened in the PC industry is increasingly difficult to tell one laptop from another. and policymakers have struggled on prices and should be operational very good. "
Jack Gold, analyst with J. Gold Associates, has also predicted consolidation smartphone vendors, but not immediately. "All salespeople Android able to survive, maybe not? But I do not expect to see the fall of a large number of two to three years." He said the market is growing too fast eliminate the smartphone manufacturer. After two years, however, "it could easily fall and / or acquisitions and mergers, but the way of technology."II Quadroid new Wintel
