Wireless communication module industry pattern

The wireless communication module industry structure is increasingly differentiated and the strong will always be strong.

At present, the wireless communication module market is in the early stages of development, with many brands and low market concentration. In the long run, customers will become more and more loyal to branded module manufacturers, driving up industry concentration. In the end, only the suppliers of the first group will survive, while a few leading companies will become increasingly profitable, forming a “The strong will always be strong, and the winner takes all” pattern.

Looking at the wireless communication module market: the first group of companies occupies about 30% of the global market share. With the rise of downstream applications and the expansion of the total market scale, a group of high-quality module suppliers focusing on individual vertical application fields began to emerge, eventually forming a competitive situation in which the international and domestic first echelon led the way, and the domestic second echelon gradually grew.

At present, the industry has formed a competitive situation in which foreign manufacturers dominate and domestic manufacturers catch up. Foreign leaders mainly include Sierra, TelIT, U-blox, etc., which are far ahead of domestic manufacturers in terms of scale and gross profit margin. Domestic first-tier companies include SIMCom, Spreadtrum, Quectel, ZTE IoT, Fibocom, Huawei HiSilicon, etc.

Domestic wireless communication module suppliers focus more on the module business itself, “survive” first, and then “seek development.” Global module leaders Sierra and Telit are committed to exploring the development direction of the module business. Domestic manufacturers have production and manufacturing cost advantages to meet the needs for rapid and in-depth customization. For standard products, China has a mature OEM system, sufficient production capacity, and obvious cost advantages. In the future, it may seize the market share of multinational manufacturers through price concessions.

As we all know, 2G, 3G, and 4G cellular basebands and chips were once in the hands of a few overseas giants such as Qualcomm and Intel. In the field of NB-IoT technology, manufacturers such as Huawei and HiSilicon have become important leaders and are expected to break the dominance of foreign manufacturers in the future. The upstream monopoly drives the development of the domestic industrial chain. It is reported that nearly 20 provincial branches of the three major domestic operators have launched NB-IoT services. In 2018, Billions of yuan will be invested in module and terminal subsidies to promote terminal price reduction and application expansion. In the future, the domestic wireless communication module industry is expected to accelerate development driven by strong policy support and large-scale market launch.

Keywords: 4g communication module