Qualcomm holds patents in CDMA, WCDMA, OFDMA technology and is the leader in the basebandchipset market based on this technology with a market share of around 65% as of 2010.
Additionally, Nvidia acquired Icera in the past quarter which will give it a chance to strengthen its position in the chipset market (see Nvidia Acquires Icera as BasebandChipset Market Heats Up).
Since at least last September there have been rumors about whether Apple has tapped wireless chipset manufacturer Qualcomm to power cellular baseband in next generation of Apple iOS devices, namely iPhone 5 and iPad 2.