Exploding Cellular Internet of Things Chip Racetrack
The cellular Internet of Things chip refers to the communication connection chip based on the carrier network system, which is mainly used to modulate and demodulate wireless signals. It is a very core chip.
The popularity of this circuit started from NB-iot. In 2016, after the NB-iot standard was frozen, the market set off an unprecedented boom. On the one hand, NB-iot described a vision that could connect tens of billions of low-rate connection scenarios, on the other hand, the standard setting of this technology was deeply involved by Huawei and other domestic manufacturers, with a high degree of autonomy. And at the same starting line at home and abroad, it is an excellent opportunity for domestic technology to catch up with foreign competitors, therefore, it has also been vigorously supported by the policy.
Accordingly, a number of domestic cellular chip start-ups also take advantage of the trend.
After NB-iot, the next traffic of cellular Internet of things chips is 5G chips. The popularity of 5G is not mentioned here. However, compared with NB-iot chips, the research and development of 5G high-speed chips is more difficult, and the requirements for talents and capital investment also increase a lot. Many small and medium-sized cellular chip start-ups have focused on another technology, CAT.1.
After several years of market adjustment, the market found that although NB-IoT has great advantages in power consumption and cost, it also has many limitations, especially in terms of mobility and voice functions, which limit many applications. Therefore, in the context of 2G network withdrawal, LTE-Cat.1, as a low version of 4G, has undertaken a large number of 2G connection applications.
After Cat.1, what comes next? Maybe it’s a 5G Red-Cap, maybe it’s a 5G location-based chip, maybe it’s something else, but what’s certain is that cellular connectivity is currently in the midst of a historic explosion, with new technologies emerging to meet a wide variety of IoT needs.
The Cellular Internet of Things Market is also growing fast
According to our latest available market information:
The shipment of NB-iot chips in China exceeded 100 million in 2021, and the most important application scenario is meter reading. Since this year, with the recurrence of the epidemic, the shipment of smart door sensor products based on NB-iot in the market has also increased, reaching ten million levels. In addition to “live and die” in China, domestic NB-iot players are also rapidly expanding overseas markets.
In the first year of the outbreak of CAT. 1 in 2020, the market shipment reached tens of millions, and in 2021, the shipment reached more than 100 million. Benefiting from the era dividend of 2G network withdrawal, the market penetration of CAT. 1 was rapid, but after entering 2022, the market demand slowed down a lot.
In addition to mobile phones, PCS, tablets and other products, the shipments of CPE and other products are the main growth points of 5G high-speed connection.
Of course, in terms of magnitude, the number of cellular iot devices is not as large as the number of small wireless products such as Bluetooth and wifi, but the market value is significant.
At present, the price of Bluetooth chip in the market is very cheap. Among the domestic chips, the low-end Bluetooth chip used to transmit audio is about 1.3-1.5 yuan, while the price of BLE chip is about 2 yuan.
The price of cellular chips is much higher. Currently, the cheapest NB-iot chips cost about $1-2, and the most expensive 5G chips cost three digits.
So if the number of connections to cellular iot chips can take off, the value of the market is worth looking forward to. Moreover, compared with Bluetooth, wifi and other small wireless technologies, cellular iot chips have a higher entry threshold and a higher market concentration.
The increasingly competitive cellular Internet of Things chip market
In recent years, the chip industry has received unprecedented support, and as a result, various start-ups have sprung up, as has the domestic market for cellular Internet of Things chips.
In addition to Haisi (which was crushed for well-known reasons), Unigroup is now growing into the top tier of the domestic cellular chip market, with its 5G chips already in the mobile phone market. In the global cellular Internet of Things (IOT) module chip market in the first quarter of 2022, Unisplendour ranked second with a 25% share and Oppland ranked third with a 7% share, according to Counterpoint. Shifting core, core wing, Haisi and other domestic enterprises are also on the list. Unigroup and ASR are currently the “duopoly” in the domestic CAT.1 chip market, but several other domestic enterprises are also doing their best to develop CAT.1 chips.
In the NB-iot chip market, it is more lively, there are many domestic chip players such as Haisi, Unigroup, ASR, core wing, mobile core, Zhilian An, Huiting Technology, core image semiconductor, Nuoling, Wuai Yida, particle micro and so on.
When there are more players in the market, it is easy to lose. First of all, there is a price war. The price of NB-iot chips and modules has dropped significantly in recent years, which also benefits application enterprises. Secondly, it is the homogenization of products. In response to this problem, various manufacturers are also actively trying to make differentiated competition at the product level.
Post time: Aug-22-2022