MediaTek beats Qualcomm to become world’s top smartphone chipset vendor

Smartphone chipsets: MediaTek surpassed Qualcomm to become the world’s biggest smartphone chipset vendor in Q3 2020 in terms of market share with a stake of 31%, Counterpoint research has estimated. The smartphone segment bounced back to show signs of recovery in the third quarter, and with it, MediaTek surpassed giant Qualcomm. Counterpoint has attributed this growth to MediaTek’s strong performance in the price band of $100 to $250 or the mid-end segment, and to the growth in key regions including India and China.

Research Director Dale Gai said that emerging markets in Latin America and Middle East regions, coupled with the US ban on Huawei aided MediaTek’s growth significantly. Gai added that MediaTek chipsets in Xiaomi handsets increased by over three times as compared to Q3 last year. The ban on Huawei left a gap and many OEMs took to MediaTek’s TSMC-fabricated chips as their first option.

On the other hand, giant Qualcomm took the spot of the biggest 5G chipset vendor in the quarter, having provided support for 39% of all the 5G phones that were sold across the globe. Meanwhile, the demand for 5G phones also doubled in the quarter, with 17% of the smartphones sold in Q3 2020 being 5G. Counterpoint projected that with tech giant Apple launching its 5G line up, the demand trajectory for 5G smartphones would only continue to grow, and it expected that in the next quarter, 5G-enabled smartphones would be a third of all the shipped smartphones, which could put Qualcomm back on the top spot as the biggest chipset vendor next quarter.

Gai said that Qualcomm also witnessed significant increase in the high-end segment share as compared to a year ago but faced significant competition from MediaTek in the mid-end segment. Gai added that Counterpoint believed both the chipset makers would continue their intense competition with the help of aggressive pricing.