The wireless semiconductor market represents a large segment of the industry and also the area with the most potential with expected growth rates of 16 percent annually. The market is extremely diverse with opportunities in a number of standard and application specific product categories.

Perhaps no other electronic device in history has been adopted globally as quickly as the mobile cellular handset. With over $142 billion in sales and 1.3 billion units sold in 2008, the entire market is expecting to continue its extremely high growth especially in regions of the world with relatively low penetration such as China and India.

The market is large, but also diverse, with ICs used in a variety of applications. The handsets themselves are the most obvious, with chips implemented for text messaging (SMS), photo and video messaging (MMS), internet, gaming, camera, and other functions. These ICs are increasingly integrated, allowing for more functions on the same chip which reduces size and increases performance.

Another segment of the wireless market is infrastructure. Various signal processing semiconductors are used in cellular base stations, which send and receive radio signals to and from mobile handsets. Specialized ICs are also utilized in network switching subsystems which carry out switching functions between mobile phones and base stations. Although relatively small, this market segment is growing due to the high value of the semiconductors used combined with expansion into new areas.