The Chip in Your Phone Could be a Good Investment: NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA), QUALCOMM, Inc. (QCOM), Broadcom Corporation (BRCM)

QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) has a well-diversified portfolio of businesses, and all are performing well. The explosion of smartphones in the emerging markets will help the company further strengthen its hold in the mobile market.

A look at Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM) has also entered the market for LTE chips. The company’s LTE solution, expected by next year, will support all technologies, and will be much smaller in size compared to its rivals. Its chip will compete with Qualcomm’s LTE chips, and will target high-end phones such as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)‘s iPhone and the 4G-enabled iPad.

The baseband market grew 15% year over year in the first half of 2012, and LTE is currently the highest growth segment in wireless networking. With only QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) as a major player in this market, Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM) has room to capture a healthy slice of the LTE sector for itself.

Foolish finale

The air around NVIDIA is still not clear, and is largely dependent on the success of its Tegra 4 processors, which are scheduled to start commercial production by the end of this year. It is a good company, and I believe it is worthy of being in a portfolio at its current price.

QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) is, without doubt, ruling the industry. It has a secured source of revenue generation with its number of patents. It is the only viable company providing 4G LTE solution at the moment, and is poised to benefit in the future as LTE continues to grow. In short, “Qualcomm is the safest pick in the industry at the moment.”

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM), too, has good prospects but almost everything depends on 2014, when its LTE based chips hit the market. Investors with a longer horizon and in a position to park their money for a year or so, without much upside, should invest in this company.

The article The Chip in Your Phone Could be a Good Investment originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Hemanshu Bhanushali.

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