There's also the Kirrin line that are owned by Huawei [3] and used in their newer phones.
2. http://www.sonymobile.com/gb/products/phones/xperia-xa/#spec...
3. https://www.cnet.com/news/huawei-unveils-blazing-fast-kirrin...
Which matters more is, that NXP and Freescale (now part of NXP) are strong in automotive, which is not so much niche you think it is. While there is a smartphone comparable processor in the head unit, it is surrounded by about 40 to 60 Cortex-Mx processors and comparable.
Then think about the growing market of IoT, which also benefit from those automotive Coretx-Mx processors and their cheap prices.
The smartphone market is done and settled, with small improvements. But the IoT market is the one which will be disruptive.
NXP really had no Cortex-A solutions before acquiring Freescale, and Freescale's i.MX series hasn't been in a phone for years, if at all. They did have some early wins in mobile books, but not much more.
NXP is now targeting the i.MX line for automotive HMI/IVI use. The automotive-class chip domain has always been a specialty of NXP (nee Freescale nee Motorola Automotive nee Motorola Semiconductor)
But I think NFC chipsets are noise in this acquisition, I think this is all about QCOM missing the boat on automotive and buying their way into this market via NXP.
The real loser here is Intel who really doesn't have a compelling automotive story (aside from maybe Altera) and risks loosing to QCOM in handsets AND automotive.
Automotive isn't just about the application processor showing rear-camera video and 3D maps, there are a lot of other pieces needed and Moto/Freescale has had that market share for a very long time (at least with the American automakers).
Buying NXPI (and its many technologies) gives QCOM an escape path to diversify away from a maturing mobile handset market, with many foreign manufacturers in countries with a different view on IP.
I agree. Competetive reasoning aside this would leave ST Micro as the last wholly European player in that market (and NXP already is the last major one in the EU, ST being based in Switzerland). In theory Infineon could re-enter the mobile processor and memory market, but I think they left that turf for good, 10 years ago.
So I think EU authorities might have a word in this.
I suppose maybe Marvell could catch up and wind up in more phones but they're already the bargain basement chip that winds up in cheap junk tablets. They'd have a long way to go.
Intel could also make a sudden change of course and enter the market. Their foray into tablets didn't work out well for them (I own several Intel Android tablets) but at least their performance was on par with the competition at the time.