author: bachehe
Future of Smartphone Market is at Stake; Mediatek Bests Qualcomm
Taiwanese company MediaTek overtakes Qualcom. The gigantic increase in sales suggests quite a change in the mobile chipset market.
More than 100 million smartphones powered by MediaTek chipsets were sold in the fourth quarter of 2020 (Dimensity and Helio report), by which the Taiwanese manufacturer significantly increased its market share. As a result, for the first time in history the company caught up with Qualcom - the American company, which, however, remains the leader in the category of 5G chips. For Qualcomm, although it holds more than 55% of the market share, it will be increasingly difficult to maintain its dominant position.
According to a report by Counterpoint Research, MediaTek's share of the global smartphone SoC market rose to 43% in the second quarter of 2021, compared to 35% in the first quarter. In comparison, Qualcomm dominated the market at 29% in the first three months of 2021, while that figure dropped to 24% in the second.
Aggressive pricing of LTE chipsets and a focus on mid- and low-end 5G chipsets are the main reasons for MediaTek's success. This strategy has also helped the Taiwanese manufacturer to establish a presence in the 5G modem market. As a result, MediaTek and the aforementioned Qualcomm are experiencing rapid growth at the expense of Samsung (which is having a lot of trouble with investments), Huawei and other companies.
The chip shortage is very bad for Qualcomm, as their high-end products in particular suffer. Apple seems to be the only company that has been less impacted by all this, but that too could change over the next few months. The reason for Qualcom's dominance in the chipset market is Apple's flagship product, the iPhone 12, but not for long. In 2023, Apple will move away from this technology in favor of its own 5G modems.
Samsung's mobile chipset market share has fallen to just 7% this year, but with the distribution of Exynos to Chinese ODMs, this could soon rebound. Additionally, Samsung is actively working on the Exynos 2200 chip with AMD Radeon "Voyager" graphics, which puts even more pressure on Qualcomm.
MediaTek has so far focused on mid- and low-end products, but is planning big changes in terms of high-end products, slowly implementing them in the US market. Rumor has it that MediaTek's upcoming chipset, the Dimensity 2000, will be based on TSMC 4nm technology and will be able to compete with the best products from Qualcom and Samsung. If this is true, exciting times await us.