Radioframe’s Femto Drop Out
Posted Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:17:42 EDT by Aditya Kaul
Today morning we heard that Radioframe is dropping out of the femtocell access point market and narrowing its efforts on femtocell silicon instead. This does not come as a complete surprise.
The reason I say that is because Radioframe has been having troubles of late, with its 2G picocell business being in question. Regarding femtocells, they did realize that by investing time and money in developing their own silicon, they were at the risk of missing the femto boat. When most vendors were busy responding to operator RFPs, Radioframe was getting their silicon ready. Now that the market is ready to move into the next stage, with commercial rollouts being announced, Radioframe seems to have paid the price of being a maverick.
However, all is not lost for Radioframe’s femto strategy as their efforts on the silicon side could still be put to good use. The silicon market for femtocells can definitely accommodate a few more vendors, much evidenced by the recent entry of Qualcomm. However, how well Radioframe executes its femtocell silicon strategy is yet to be seen. To compete with the likes of picoChip, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Percello, all of whom have been in the business of silicon solutions is not an easy ask.
Radioframe’s exit could be the first sign of the economic downturn affecting the femtocell market. With most of the key femtocell vendors being startup companies with venture backed funding, there could be suggestions that we might see others like Radioframe. Although there is always the risk of the market getting worse, and VC’s putting pressure on firms to deliver, its not very likely that we might see another Radioframe. In fact, with many larger vendors having resisted investing R&D dollars into femtocells, we could even have a case for some industry consolidation that could occur.
Most of the key femtocell vendors in the market are known to be delivering results, and are not known to be in as perilous a position as Radioframe. picoChip, the key femtocell silicon vendor has recently received extra funding, which could in fact be an indication that the investors still have faith, and the market is now preparing for the big push, looking at larger volumes.