Company: GCTS
Filing Date: 2025-03-25
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-044438
Chunk: 84

Company: GCT Semiconductor Holding, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-25
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 84
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 requirements, and to make adoption by ODM and OEMs as carefree as possible.

 8

Competition

We believe that our competitive strengths will enable us to compete favorably in the 4G and 5G markets. Companies in this industry primarily compete on the following elements: functionality, form factor and cost; product performance, as measured by network throughput, signal reach, latency and power consumption; track record of providing high-volume deployments in the industry; and systems knowledge.

Companies offering wireless modem chipset can be categorized into those primarily focused on wireless modem chipsets for smartphones and those, like us, dedicated to wireless modem chipsets for wireless broadband applications including FWA CPE, mobile routers and modules. Qualcomm and HiSilicon, for example, offer wireless modem chipsets for both smartphones and wireless broadband applications. In the mid and low-end 4G wireless broadband market, there are Qualcomm, the Company, MediaTek, HiSilicon and Sequans among others. However, in the high-speed 4G LTE space, such as 4.75G and 5G wireless broadband market, chipsets are primarily offered by Qualcomm, us and MediaTek, while Samsung LSI concentrates only on modem chipsets for smartphones (most notably the Samsung Galaxy line). HiSilicon has encountered difficulties in its modem business due to political sanctions, and companies like Sequans are limited to lower end IoT chipset developments.

We establish high technology barriers by offering highly integrated solutions incorporating RF transceivers, baseband modems, and protocol software. In this field, any issues in either the hardware or software components can impede the progress towards actual commercialization. While some specific components can be sourced through external intellectual property (“IP”) providers, there are no IP companies that can provide turn-key integrated solutions. Consequently, we believe it is highly unlikely for others to replicate all of these hardware and software components, insulating us from competition by newcomers, startups, and other risk factors. A recent example of the challenges in wireless communication chipsets development, including baseband modem development, can be seen in Apple’s experience in this space. In their pursuit of 5G modem development, Apple has acquired the entire modem development division of Intel, emphasizing that independent development alone is not feasible. Even after acquiring Intel’s modem development division, Apple still ostensibly faces obstacles in development and still primarily relies on Qualcomm’s modem products.

Accordingly, due to the combined impact of high barriers to entry, market pushback against large incumbents with excessive market power or political sanctions against