Not many people may believe this but in the third quarter of 2020 MediaTek saw a strong performance. The company has captured 31% of the chipset market. It’s one effect of smartphone sales rebounding in Q3 2020. Mainly, the improvement is due to strong sales of phones in India and China which are two key markets for devices priced anything from $100 to $250. That’s the low-budget to low mid-range category that is really getting stronger each year. The data was recently reported by Counterpoint.
When it comes to the 5G chipset category, Qualcomm was number one in previous quarter. About 39% of all 5G phones sold globally were powered by Qualcomm. That’s quite high but not exactly surprising since the company has more 5G processors available and being used in the market today. It may soon be challenged by Apple as it recently introduced its very own 5G phones.
MediaTek’s win is caused by several factors including the Huawei ban in the US and the increase in sales of Honor, Xiaomi, and Samsung. The low-cost to mid-range game has a stronger share in Q3 especially in emerging markets like MEA (Middle East and Africa) and LATAM (Latin America).
Xiaomi uses MediaTek chips and with Xiaomi sales going up, it’s natural MediaTek follows. It can also be noted that Huawei purchased more from MediaTek due to the US trade ban.
Research Analyst Ankit Malhotra had this to say, “Qualcomm and MediaTek have both reshuffled their portfolios, and consumer focus has played a key role here. Last year, MediaTek launched a new gaming-based G-series, while Dimensity chipsets have helped in bringing 5G to affordable categories. The world’s cheapest 5G device, the realme V3, is powered by MediaTek.”
Malhotra added, “The immediate focus of chipset vendors will be to bring 5G to the masses, which will then unlock the potential of consumer 5G use cases like cloud gaming, which in turn will lead to higher demand for higher clocked GPUs and more powerful processors. Qualcomm and MediaTek will continue to contend for the top position.”
We’re curious to know how Q4 2020 and the next few quarters will be. We want to see increasing numbers and stronger performances not only for Mediatek but also for Qualcomm. Let’s wait and see.