MP3 market heating up chip manufacturers busy tianchai"

Relevant data show that in 2004 the global MP3 player shipments reached 31 million 500 thousand units, an increase of 85.3% compared to 2003. MP3 player market is expected to grow at least 1 times this year, reaching $about 60000000, will generate $400 million in the chip market. Many domestic and foreign IC manufacturers have begun to compete in this field.

Higher integration is the goal of the designer

In recent years, digital music has been widely recognized, and the product is compact and lightweight can carry a lot of music and the price is reasonable (256M flash player cost less than $89), the MP3 player market is increasing rapidly. Some people say that for young consumers now, MP3 player is more of a fashion decoration, rather than simply electronic products.

Liu Jiasheng, vice president of SigmaTel Asia, MP3 generally has two kinds: one kind is based on the hard disk, one is based on flash player. The average price of the hard disk player is $300 to $400, and the price of the flash player is generally more than $100. Because of its low cost and compact appearance, the flash player is expected to dominate the market.

The OEM manufacturers in terms of the MP3 player will be more compact, lower cost, longer battery life, available time faster development, correspondingly, IC design is also facing challenges to manufacturers to provide advanced mixed signal integrated power management, specialized technology, system level solutions etc..

Senior vice president of SigmaTel mobile SOC department and general manager Mike Wodopian said, long battery life, high integration, low cost is the MP3 manufacturers and IC manufacturers design common challenges.

For a high degree of integration, Wuxi Huarun microelectronics program development department, said Zhang made his own views. He said, MP3 chip technology, a higher degree of integration of the development trend, will make many IC manufacturers to design the original could not function, such as FM radio, LCD display are integrated together, so that MP3 can not only play audio, but also can play video.

Domestic manufacturers to actively respond

According to insiders, at present, China's MP3 shipments ranked first in the world, the world's largest MP3 manufacturers in China have a production base. While China's market is to allow foreign MP3 chip supplier coveted, SigmaTel, Telechip, Philips and other companies have increased investment in china.

Liu Jiasheng said that the Asia Pacific region is an important SigmaTel continued growth in the market, they have 95% of the customers are concentrated in this region, and China is undoubtedly the key markets in the Asia Pacific region. This year they will continue to expand their customer base in China, but also to improve their business coverage, including offices in Hongkong, Shenzhen and other places.

In the face of a series of foreign manufacturers, how to have a place in the competition has become the most important issue in front of the domestic IC design companies. Domestic sources said that the development capacity, in addition to a handful of high-end MP3 chips, the domestic manufacturers in the mainstream of MP3 program design is not backward, almost synchronized with foreign countries.

Zhang Yi said that at present, the domestic MP3 chip companies and foreign companies in the gap between technology and market channels are very small, but prospective in the market is still lacking, because foreign companies with strong technical strength and experience in product development more mature, more variety, more feature rich, they can at the launch of a series of five or six products. In addition, they also have the advantage in the market segmentation, a chip on only one market, while domestic products are relatively simple. However, if after a period of accumulation, coupled with their own characteristics in the development of products, domestic enterprises will further narrow the gap.

Zhuhai Juli company planning department Xue Wei said, domestic chip enterprises to based on MP3 market, must have independent intellectual property rights, the function and application to have its own characteristics. He further explained that for a product, technology is very important, but the market is more important, only developed a product to market, and the fastest response to the market, in order to have a space for one person in the competition. Zhuhai fire force is to master the key technology in the development of MP3 chip with independent intellectual property rights, and has a very rich experience in SOC development and very strong technical service and production team, supporting capacity, become one of the main suppliers of domestic MP3 market. He stressed that China's IC design companies grow fast, explosive, very growth, as long as close to the market, understand the market, the development of products to meet the market, will be able to get in the race.