In the mobile SoC market, Qualcomm is the king, but Samsung shows signs for a quick comeback. Samsung is in top 3 chip manufacturers in the world, but it;s hardware development isn't that bright. It's mainly applications are in Exynos line, which doesn't sell that much and is on a share market descending line. Exynos 5420 is Samsung's first octa-core processor, but it's lack of LTE-A modems or 4k video recording features makes a lower utility of the SoC.
Industry reports said that since 2013 the market increased by 10 percent in the last months. An analyst said that:
“Early year shipments have risen (compared to last year). There is still some uncertainty, but system semiconductors business will fare better than last year."This year will bring some changes for Samsung. It seems they will built a hexa-core processor for Galaxy Note 3 Neo and will develop a 64-bit SoC. So it seems that the battle between Samsung and Qualcomm's Snapdragon will be intense. So, they want to sell more Exynos tablets and find more clients that are interesting in using Exynos hardware. The battle will be more interesting as LG announced to enter the SoC market this year. This year Samsung launched four tablets: 3 Tab Pros and a Note Pro. The 3G variants are featuring Exynos and it seems that this year they want to sell entry-level and mid-range mobile phones that use Exynos. It is clear that Samsung is looking on the long run with Exynos to gain more market share.