When we analyze the potential application scenarios of UWB, especially the C-end application scenarios, we must see whether the mobile phone has UWB function. So which mobile phones on the market have UWB function? What is the annual shipment volume of mobile phones with UWB function?
The "2025 China High-Precision Positioning Technology Industry White Paper" compiled by AIoT Star Map Research Institute has a detailed review of this information.
Apple
Starting with the iPhone 11 released in 2019, all iPhones have been equipped with UWB chips as standard. The latest version is the iPhone 16.
iPhone phones use self-developed U1/U2 chips. The shipment volume of iPhone phones in 2024 is about 230 million units. From this, it can be roughly estimated that the total number of iPhone phones with UWB chips on the market is about 1 billion.
Samsung
The flagship "Galaxy S" series has used UWB chips since the S22 series. The latest version is the S24 series. The high-end version (S24 Ultra) and the mid-end version (S24+) have UWB, while the standard version does not.
Samsung's folding screen mobile phone W23/W24/W25 has two models, the standard version and the low-end version. The standard version has UWB chips, while the low-end version does not;
Galaxy Z Fold6 is also a folding screen mobile phone. Its standard version has UWB, while the low-end version does not.
The shipment volume of Galaxy S24 in 2024 is between 35 million and 40 million units, of which the shipment volume of mid-to-high-end models with UWB accounts for about 70%.
The shipment volume of Samsung's folding screen is unknown.
Samsung's mobile phones currently use NXP's UWB chip, and Qualcomm's three-in-one chip will most likely switch to it after it matures. However, Samsung also has many cheaper models that do not use Qualcomm's main chip, so if Samsung uses UWB in more low-priced mobile phones in the future, it may also use UWB chips from other manufacturers.
Google's mobile phone brand Pixel started to support UWB in Pixel 6, and each subsequent version also supports it. The latest is Pixel 9. However, Pixel phones generally support UWB in the high-end "Pro" version.
Google's Pixel phone shipments in 2024 are expected to be around 10 million, while the number of Pro versions is unknown.
Google's UWB chip is reportedly from Qorvo.
Huawei
The latest phones released in 2024: Mate XT and Mate 70 RS have UWB chips.
Huawei's Mate 60 Pro in 2023 is also reported to have UWB.
Huawei's two newly released mobile phones with UWB chips are both high-end and priced at more than 10,000 yuan. Therefore, the shipment volume is expected to be in the millions.
Huawei's UWB chips are currently made by domestic manufacturers, and it is understood that Huawei HiSilicon is also developing UWB chips. In addition, Huawei is also promoting Star Flash, in which SLP is a technology that matches UWB. This may disperse Huawei's resources, but in terms of market compatibility, UWB will still be the mainstream.
Source: AIoT Star Map Research Institute
Of course, the table counts the UWB-enabled mobile phones that have been launched on the market. In the past one or two years, the progress of UWB entering mobile phones has accelerated significantly. According to the information we have obtained from our research, in 2025, we will see that domestic mainstream mobile phone brands will have new mobile phone models with UWB chips.
This paper is from Ulink Media, Shenzhen, China, the organizer of IOTE EXPO (IoT Expo in China)
