China-based Spreadtrum Communications expects to enjoy significant growth in shipments for 3G and 4G LTE smartphones in 2015, according to company chairman and CEO Leo Li. Sales generated from the company's smartphone solutions are set to account for more than 40% of its overall revenues during the year.

Spreadtrum shipped about 200 million smartphone chips in 2014, said Li, adding that it has specialized in the design of low- to mid-range smartphone chip solutions. The company is moving forward to develop 14/16nm chips through cooperation with the world's leading foundries, and make its offerings for smartphones more complete, Li noted.

In addition, Spreadtrum has started developing IC solutions for tablets, TVs and Internet of Things (IoT) while dedicating more resources to R&D, Li indicated.

Spreadtrum is also looking to hire hundreds of staff in 2015 - mostly engineers, Li said. The company's R&D team will expand to about 5,000 people during the year, Li added.

In other news, Spreadtrum recently announced its two quad-core 28nm SoC solutions have achieved mass production.