SHANGHAI, CHINA – January 28, 2014 – Spreadtrum Communications, Inc. ("Spreadtrum" or the "Company"), a leading fabless semiconductor provider in China with advanced technology in 2G, 3G and 4G wireless communications standards, today introduced its next generation single-core smartphone platform for WCDMA, TD-SCDMA and EDGE, which integrates a Cortex™-A7 CPU running at speeds up to 1.2GHz as well as GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth® and FM connectivity functions. This higher level of integration coupled with faster device performance is designed to further reduce the cost of entry-level smartphones while enhancing the user experience, particularly important in emerging markets where there are large numbers of consumers who will be buying their first smartphone over the next few years.

“Our single-core smartphone platform provides a rich user experience to the consumer who is buying a smartphone for the first time,” said Dr. Leo Li, chairman and CEO of Spreadtrum Communications. “By integrating connectivity, we are able to bring down the total device cost for our customers which can help further improve end-market retail prices. This can help further open up mass market demand globally.”

According to U.K. research firm Mediacells, consumers in India and China will purchase more than 500 million smartphones in 2014, accounting for half of the total units that will be sold globally. Of these, more than 400 million consumers will be buying their first smartphone, underscoring the importance of entry level smartphones in these regions. “In 2014, the number of mobile internet users in the developing world will overtake those in the developed world for the first time,” said Brad Rees, managing director of Mediacells.

Spreadtrum is introducing three new chipsets with the launch of its next generation single-core smartphone platform. The SC7715, which is sampling now, is a single-core WCDMA smartphone chipset with integrated connectivity, supporting WCDMA/HSPA+ and EDGE/GPRS/GSM standards. It integrates a single-core Cortex™-A7 CPU running at speeds up to 1.2GHz, a Mali 400 GPU for high performance graphics, as well as GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth® and FM functions. The chip also supports up to a 5 megapixel camera, 720p video and display resolution up to WVGA. Spreadtrum is also sampling its next generation single-core EDGE smartphone chipset (SC6815) and will release a similar platform for TD-SCDMA (SC8815) in the second quarter.