In terms of market share, MediaTek has overtaken Qualcomm to become the world’s largest mobile chip vendor. More than 100 million MediaTek-powered smartphones were sold in Q3 2020, according to a recent report. Compared to the previous year’s revenue, this marks an estimated five percent rise.
The information comes from research firm Counterpoint, which describes that the growth of MediaTek in key regions such as China and India, combined with its good results in the price bracket of $100-250, are two key reasons for the success of the group in Q3 2020.
The market share of MediaTek currently stands at 31 percent, putting it narrowly ahead of Qualcomm’s share of 29%.
The U.S. ban on Huawei is another reason for MediaTek’s growth, according to Counterpoint’s Research Chief, Dale Gai, “The share of MediaTek chipsets in Xiaomi has increased by more than three times since the same period last year. MediaTek was also able to leverage the gap created due to the US ban on Huawei. Affordable MediaTek chips fabricated by TSMC became the first option for many OEMs to quickly fill the gap left by Huawei’s absence. Huawei had also previously purchased a significant amount of chipsets ahead of the ban.”
Meanwhile, during the Q3 2020 period, Qualcomm was the largest 5G chipset vendor, with Qualcomm chips powering 39 percent of 5G smartphones sold worldwide.
In Q3 2020, demand for 5G handsets doubled, according to the survey. Further growth is expected, especially in light of the 5G-capable iPhone 12 lineup from Apple. One-third of all smartphones delivered in Q4 2020 is projected to be 5G-enabled, so this quarter Qualcomm will be able to reclaim the top spot.
Research Analyst Ankit Malhotra said: “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.”