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Skyworks' Success Yet to Be Reflected in the Market

SWKS has done well in meeting earnings expectations over the last two years, but I don't think you can characterize it as a "smartphone" pure-play.

SWKS has only one of four PA components in the 3G iPhone (selling for $1), while TQNT has three (selling for about $4.50). SWKS does have good exposure at RIMM. But generally 3G, which a lot of smartphones use, is not the area of greatest strength for SWKS at the moment.

As the company alluded to in their recent conference calls, they increased their market share a lot in the low-end segment for "single-chip phones" where they are providing the PA/front-end module. These partnerships with companies like MediaTek, TI and other baseband providers have been providing revenue momentum for SWKS and could be an area of strength (particularly MediaTek which saw very strong baseband shipments in the September quarter).

With the ecomonic crisis it's really hard to say how much SWKS will be affected. Accounts such as RIMM could be affected. In the low-end of the market some reports say that handset volumes won't be affected as much by the crisis as high-end handsets, which could be a positive for SWKS, but on the other hand price pressure for these PA components could increase.