SiRF, about to be acquired by CSR, and Texas Instruments claimed the second and third slots in the companys most recent evaluation of worldwide GPS chip vendors.

Other suppliers in the research group's latest evaluation of the market included Qualcomm Inc, NXP Semiconductors, CSR plc, Air Semiconductor, Atheros, Atmel, Maxim, u-blox and SkyTraq.

"Our ranking is not just about size or market but a whole range of criteria encompassing factors regarding innovation and implementation. It is a tricky matrix since many of the players are involved in completely different end user areas. For instance Atmel and NXP focus entirely on the automotive end of the business, while Qualcomm is very much in the handsets sector, ABI Research senior analyst George Perros told EE Times Europe .

"We try to be fair to all vendors."

Perros would not go much further into the rankings of the 17 companies tracked in the latest evaluation, but noted that Qualcomm and STMicroelectronics took fourth and fifth slots, and Swiss GPS chip and module specialist was in the top ten.

"Recent consolidation within the GPS chipset sector has led to intensified competition among the remaining players and increased collaboration between semiconductor suppliers and the firmware and complementary radio technology providers (primarily Wi-Fi and Bluetooth)," said Perros.

He added that players in the sector are attempting to differentiate their product offerings and re-tool their value propositions, particularly in consumer device markets. "The result is a GPS semiconductor sector that is evolving into a two-tier industry, where smaller participants will find it difficult if not impossible to compete for large volume applications."

In ABI's matrix, the innovation criteria includes aspects such as the use of evolving fabrication technology, packaging innovation, features (software/firmware, power, size), flexibility (chip packaging, OEM integration options), the vendors recent product introductions, and whether the ICs offer multiple radio integration. Under implementation, the company scrutinized the ability of vendors' designs to meet performance and feature objectives; sourcing strategies and the strength of the vendors' supply chains; marketing/sales strategy, organizational alignments and structures to support their GPS market strategy; their market presence; the effectiveness of their product strategies and strength of their product lines; their partnerships; and, importantly, their relative market share.

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