Dual-core processors, which power ultra-high-end smartphones, gained strong traction in 2011, accounting for nearly 20 percent of total smartphone applications processors shipped, according to, “Smartphone Multi-Core Apps Processor Market Share: Samsung Leads with 60 Percent Volume Share in  2011,” from the Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies service.

Strategy Analytics research shows that Samsung led the dual-core smartphone applications processor market in 2011, with 60 percent volume share, followed by Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and NVIDIA. Samsung’s success in dual-core processors can be attributed to its

strong sales at Apple and in Samsung’s own Mobile Handset Division.

Stand-alone applications processors accounted for 90 percent of total dual-cores shipped in 2011. In contrast single-core applications processors are much more likely to be integrated with the baseband modem with 72 percent of total single-core products shipped being

baseband integrated applications processors in 2011.

Sravan Kundojjala, Senior Analyst, said: “Strategy Analytics would advise NVIDIA to focus on high volume tier-one design-wins in 2012 in order to maintain its first-mover advantage with quad-core processors. NVIDIA lost momentum as its Tegra 2 smartphone shipments declined 8 percent in 2H 2011 compared to the 1H 2011 shipments, despite being early to market with dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processors.”

According to Stuart Robinson, Director of the Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies service, “Qualcomm captured 16 percent volume share in the dual-core smartphone applications processor market in 2011 on the strength of its dual-core Snapdragon applications processor products MSM8x60 and APQ8060.”

“Strategy Analytics believes that Qualcomm is well-positioned to make significant share gains in 2012 with the help of its LTE-integrated dual-core Snapdragon processor MSM8960,” Robinson added.

Kundojjala said he anticipates dual-core applications processor penetration into mainstream smartphones to accelerate through 2012 and into 2013, and new ARM architectures such as Cortex-A5 will help dual-core penetrate entry-level smartphones at the start of 2013.