MediaTek sold more chipsets than Qualcomm in 2020 thanks to Huawei's decline
What you need to know
- MediaTek became the number 1 chipset supplier last year.
- It was carried by the absence of Huawei's Kirin chips in the low-end market.
- MediaTek was also helped by the sale of low-end Xiaomi and Samsung handsets.
MediaTek has taken the crown of the biggest smartphone supplier, according to a report from analyst firm Omdia (via Digitimes). The company shipped 351.8 million chips to smartphone OEMs, a growth of 47.8% coming from what it had supplied in 2019.
The company's rise in 2020 can be attributed to an increase in the sales of cheap Android phones, alongside a ban on rival chipset maker, Huawei.
Huawei last year had said that it would be quitting the chip market for low-end phones, allowing MediaTek to swoop in and supply chipsets to the likes of Xiaomi. Xiaomi also saw a sales bump due to Huawei's absence in the market, further contributing to MediaTek's rise.
Zaker Li, senior analyst of wireless devices components & devices at Omdia was quoted as saying:
Counterpoint Research Director Dale Gai also agreed with this, in a report issued in 2020, he further added:
MediaTek is said to be powering Samsung's upcoming A7 Lite, and rumors indicate that the company is even branching into the high-end Chromebook market with powerful new chips. It's not great news for Qualcomm, but it's good news for the consumers who get to reap the benefits of renewed competition.
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