Apple Q1

A day after TI confirmed OMAP was going great guns, Apple produced yet another blow-out quarter. Channel checks and operator activation numbers had indicated very strong iPhone 4S numbers but no-one predicted the magnitude of sales would be so great:

iPhone 37m
iPad 15.4m
iPod 15.4m (>50% Touch as usual)
even the Apple TV (hobby) managed 1.4m.

If you add in Apple's 2011 Q3 and Q4 shipments we get the following running total from April 2011 onwards :

iPhone: 74.1m
iPad: 35.7m
iPod Touch: approx 15m
Apple TV: approx 3m
(plus some contribution from iPod Nano at smaller asp)

Giving a total of approx 127m devices .  IMG's FY also starts 1st May, so that has to be factored in. IMG's total royalty volume was 123m in H1, so that puts it in perspective. HY talked about a 'substantial acceleration' in royalty volume in H2 and here it is.
The momentum in Q2 will continue as the China launch for iPhone 4S was in January and demand is 'off the charts'.
Many analysts had predicted iPad 2 volume was dropping off but it never materialised.
Another source of  HY's 'substantial acceleration' is the Kindle Fire (also IMG'd via OMAP), so it will be interesting to see the numbers on that device (Amazon report next Tuesday).

Full transcript of the CC:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/321818-apple-s-ceo-discusses-q1-2012-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=qanda

Intel Q4

The results season for IMG's main partners is under way, starting with Intel Q4 last night.
We scrutinise this , not for the volume numbers (small fry at present via Cedartrail/Oaktrail etc) but for indicators of Intel's ambitions,strategy and commitment to IMG-related areas (ie. mobile). There has been a lot of interesting debate on forums/techsites on whether Intel have made a 'solid start' with Medfield (especially after the Anand analysis) or is just another false dawn. I am firmly in the 'Intel will succeed because they have to' camp. There is no option for them, and in Mike Bell they have a leader with 'carte blanche' to tap into all of Intel's resources in a co-ordinated manner and take whatever/whoever he needs (it is almost Apple-like no ?) from anywhere, in order to succeed.
Excerpts from Intel Q4 CC (courtesy of www.seekingalpha.com)

Otellini:

In addition to the Lenovo K800, we announced the Medfield-based smartphone reference design that boasts a sleek form factor, 8 hours of talk time, 6 hours of 1080p video playback and 14 days of standby power, clearly demonstrating the low-power, high-performance capabilities of Intel architecture. Yet as the performance of this device that really showcases what's possible when you combine advanced process technology and the world's most popular computer architecture. Though Medfield is our very first smartphone SoC, independent testers appointed to benchmarks to place Medfield reference design among the very best in the markets.

It was this differentiated performance and exceptional roadmap and exciting new usage models that led to our multiyear, multi-device strategic relationship with Motorola Mobility. The first of these Intel architecture-based devices will go through carrier certification this summer with commercial availability shortly thereafter. And while the Lenovo and Motorola designs are exciting first steps, we're not done making announcements in the smartphone space.

Otellini:

In tablets, I think we'll be able to do that from day one, as you see the Android tablets coming out and Windows 8 tablets coming out. And you'll see us well-positioned in multiple price point on those. And who knows where those prices go over time, but our intention would be to use the advanced silicon integration capability we have to be able to drive the build material cost down, integration up in tablet space, which I think is going to be a sweet spot for Intel. On phones, our strategy is a little bit different. We're coming in at the top of the smartphone market. Our value proposition initially is aimed at best performance and very competitive feature sets and very good battery life. Over -- and then let me say on the other end of the market, the Infineon acquisition has given us a very strong position in basic phones and feature phones. They shipped 400 million modems this year into the cell phone business. So over time, what we'll want to do is grow that capability up by integrating the apps processor and the comm processors onto the same chip, while we drive our initial positions in apps processors from the top down.

Otellini:

Well, actually, they were about where I thought they would be, but I was well below what many of you had. I think the thing is, tablets are a little bit about hardware and an awful lot about software. And I think that until you get to Ice Cream Sandwich, the offering isn't as powerful as what's out there with Apple. And as the Ice Cream Sandwich tablets start shipping, I think you'll start seeing a little bit better receptivity, Google just added the music store, the videos are better, everything got a little bit better bit ICS. And so I think the better test is year 2 here, in terms of is there anyone that can compete with the iPad? And then the other part of that test, of course, is the Windows 8 tablets that are being queued up for production. So I don't know that the whole tablet thing is settled down by any stretch, and I do have a lot of interest in, if you heard me at CES about these hybrid and convertible designs as they apply to clamshells, where there's a significant blurring between what people do with tablets and what people do with PCs. So the jury is out on I think the long-term segmentation by form factor. But I do think you'll see more progress on the Android side as a result of ICS.

Otellini:

 I did not say, I want to be very clear, I did not say that our intent would be to integrate Medfield to baseband. I said over time, you'll see us move from the low-end baseband-only business in the feature phones and value phones to having it a more integrated capability. I didn't say when and what generation. I'm really not at liberty to discuss that. But the major thrust over the next year or 2 is going to be to have very high-performance modems as a comps processor and the best-of-class apps processors for smartphones.

END

Next week we have TI and of course Apple to look forward to.

Intel Medfield Impresses

Paul Otellini officially revealed the Medfield Platform yesterday evening, as expected.
The performance and power consumption were a nice surprise however. As usual with all things Intel, Anand has an in-depth description here:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5365/intels-medfield-atom-z2460-arrive-for-smartphones

The SoC is known as Penwell (Z2460) and this single core version uses an SGX 540 graphics core together with VDX 385(decode) and VDE 285(encode) video cores all from IMG. The successor to Medfield will use  SGX 543MPx graphics.
The 2 announced partners are very significant. Lenovo, one of the largest Chinese OEMs will release a smartphone in Q2 (China Unicom) based on the Medfield Reference Design, whilst Motorola (ie. Google) have announced a multi-year multi-device deal , with the first smartphone later this year.
So it looks like Intel are finally getting their act together wrt smartphones and tablets, and we should see meaningful royalty volume from 2013 onwards imo.

Imagination unveils first Power VR Series 6 Cores

Finally, we have some names !

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=666

Excerpts:

International CES, Las Vegas, USA: Imagination Technologies, a leading multimedia and communication technologies company, announces the first IP cores in its ground-breaking PowerVR Series6 GPU core family.

The PowerVR G6200 and G6400 GPU IP cores are the first in a growing family of PowerVR Series6 GPU cores.

Says Hossein Yassaie, CEO, Imagination: “Based on our experience in shipping hundreds of millions of GPU cores, plus extensive market and customer feedback, we have been able to set a new standard in GPU architecture, particularly in the areas of power, bandwidth and efficiency – the key metrics by which GPUs are now judged. We are confident that with the Rogue architecture we have a very clear technology advantage and an exceptional roadmap for the PowerVR Series6 family which our partners can depend on.”

Imagination’s PowerVR graphics technologies are the de facto standard for mobile and embedded graphics, with over 90 licenses by leading semiconductor companies, and have shipped in more than 600m devices to date. PowerVR Series6 has already secured eight licensees, and been delivered to multiple lead partners. Among the PowerVR Series6 partners announced so far are ST-Ericsson, Texas Instruments, Renesas Electronics and MediaTek.

END

Imho surely it can only be a matter of time before Qualcomm accept the inevitable and license PVR Series 6.....

We also have this PR:

http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=665

Excerpt:

International CES, Las Vegas, USA: Imagination Technologies, a leading multimedia and communications technologies company, says that it believes three key trends will transform the consumer electronics industry and also drive many new vital emerging markets in the next few years. These trends are:

1. GPU gaining ground:  GPU’s relevance to key modern applications and its efficiency in carrying important functions are driving SoC designers to use more GPU resources as a proportion of SoC silicon area. High performance, ultra-low power GPUs (graphics processing units) that are best known for powering the user interfaces and games in smartphones today will become the ‘heavy lifting’ processors of tomorrow’s SoCs. GPUs will become vastly more powerful thanks to their scalable parallel processing capabilities, triggering a mass market parallel software revolution. GPUs will increasingly be complemented by highly optimised VPUs (video processing units) to deliver multiple streams of multi-standard HD video within a graphics-rich application environment, taking the user experience to another level of sophistication, quality and ease of use.

2. On-chip RPUs: highly programmable communication capabilities, built using RPUs (radio processing unit) that support a broad range of major global connectivity and broadcast receiver standards, will be essential for the next wave of integration. RPUs will increasingly become integrated on-chip, just as Imagination predicted would happen for GPUs more than ten years ago, to achieve the high performance, low cost, low power consumption characteristics that consumer and emerging markets will expect as standard.

3. Connected products have just begun: connectivity to the internet will become a ’must-have’ feature resulting in billions of new connected products across every category of consumer entertainment and productivity product, as well as an emerging array of broader products from consumer healthcare equipment to home automation systems.

Says Tony King-Smith, VP marketing, Imagination: “Our business is focused on enabling new markets as well as taking full advantage of discontinuities in the evolution of more established and familiar product categories. Our PowerVR GPU and VPU (video processor) technologies continue to enable profound transformations in user experiences in an ever broader array of consumer and mobile products, resulting in consumers now expecting these same user experiences on every device they use.

“Given our experience in these markets, and our strategic relationships with many of the world’s leading semiconductor, end product, content, applications and internet technology companies, we are increasingly confident that our Ensigma RPU communications IP cores, complemented by our Meta connected processors and Flow connectivity technologies, are destined to increasingly power the next wave of ubiquitous cloud-connected smart devices and systems throughout the home, car, office and factory, as well as enabling innovative new mobile and embedded products that touch everyone’s lives.”

END

IMG has it's largest ever presence at CES and will also have an analyst meeting for the first time  - all part of becoming a much larger scale global technology leader.

Lots of new products with IMG-inside are being showcased at CES (see SoC link), some identifiable, whilst others remain a secret (for now).