How MediaTek became the best-kept secret in smartphones - Digital Trends

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What benignant of chipset is successful your phone? If you’re speechmaking this article, chances are you cognize the reply close disconnected the apical of your head. Maybe it’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Google’s Tensor G2, oregon an A16 Bionic successful your marque caller iPhone 14 Pro. Or, conscionable maybe, it’s 1 with a MediaTek logo connected it.

MediaTek isn’t a institution we speech astir often erstwhile discussing U.S. smartphones, but it’s 1 we astir surely should. I precocious attended MediaTek’s Executive Summit successful Sonoma and had a accidental to beryllium down with the company’s Deputy General Manager of its Smartphone Business Unit, Yenchi Lee. I’ve travel distant from the Summit with a renewed appreciation for MediaTek’s stealthy occurrence implicit the years, arsenic good arsenic greater excitement astir wherever it could spell successful the future.

Massive occurrence hiding successful plain sight

MediaTek descent showing planetary smartphone shipments.

It’s casual to deliberation Qualcomm has a full stranglehold connected the marketplace erstwhile it puts flagship chips successful the Galaxy S22, OnePlus 10 Pro, and different phones, but MediaTek has a beardown instauration arsenic the #1 chipset for Android phones successful the U.S. You whitethorn not spot MediaTek chips successful buzz worthy phones from Samsung oregon Google, but its absorption connected mid and low-tier handsets is simply a strategy that intelligibly moving — very well.

Along with its immense U.S. presence, MediaTek has been the #1 supplier of planetary smartphone spot shipments for the past 8 quarters, astir precocious accounting for 37% of planetary smartphone chips compared to Qualcomm’s 28%. Those are massive numbers, and ones that person been truly accordant for the past fewer quarters.

How’s MediaTek doing it? It’s a MediaTek spot you’ll find successful a Galaxy A32, OnePlus Nord N300, oregon the astir caller Motorola Edge. They aren’t phones that get the astir attraction successful the tech quality spotlight, but they’re ones “normal” radical are buying — batch of.

And MediaTek isn’t stopping with phones from those well-established brands. Speaking with Yenchi Lee astir MediaTek’s attack to getting MediaTek chips into adjacent much smartphones, helium told me, “We [MediaTek] are really moving with each sorts of smaller brands arsenic well… We are [also] talking to galore different caller brands close now.” Lee wouldn’t confirm which brands those are, but it’s an important remark regardless. MediaTek’s mobile concern is already successful a beardown place, but that’s not stopping the institution from reaching retired to much smartphone brands and expanding its scope adjacent further.

The flagship MediaTek propulsion we’ve been waiting for

The Mediatek Dimensity 9200 successful a show case.

But wherefore is that exciting? That’s apt bully quality for MediaTek’s bottommost line, but however is that going to interaction you and me? In summation to much mid-range MediaTek chips making their mode to U.S. smartphones, we whitethorn soon spot a time erstwhile MediaTek’s flagship exertion makes a Stateside quality arsenic well.

MediaTek utilized portion of this year’s Summit to speech astir the Dimensity 9200, its latest flagship spot for smartphones implicit the adjacent year, and it’s quite the chip. The Dimensity 9200 has an improved 4nm design, up to 45% reduced powerfulness consumption, mmWave 5G, and Wi-Fi 7. If there’s thing you privation successful a flagship smartphone heading into 2023, chances are the Dimensity 9200 has it.

Poster of the Mediatek Dimensity 9200 chip.

There’s conscionable 1 large uncertainty looming implicit it: availability. Last year’s Dimensity 9000 spot was besides incredibly powerful, but beyond a fistful of handsets from the likes of OnePlus and Xiaomi, it had an highly constricted release. Will the Dimensity 9200 spot a akin fate?

Lee doesn’t deliberation so. “The flagship conception is inactive the happening we privation to pat into. We’re blessed to enactment with OEMs, and hopefully, the adjacent twelvemonth oregon the twelvemonth aft — we don’t cognize yet — they volition beryllium capable to bring our flagship 9200 into U.S. markets,” said Lee.” It’s thing we’re moving on, and we are not stopping there.” MediaTek’s Senior Media and Analyst Relations Manager, Brad Molen, besides made a bully constituent astir the Dimensity 9200’s mmWave support, noting “Having mmWave successful the 9200, I think, volition surely assistance with the entreaty to U.S. markets.”

‘More than mobile’ doesn’t mean ignoring mobile

A large absorption for MediaTek arsenic we extremity 2022 and spell into 2023 is making the satellite much alert of its concern beyond smartphones. When MediaTek comes up successful conversations, it’s often astir 1 of its smartphone chips. And portion those are important, MediaTek wants to rise greater consciousness astir everything other it does, which admittedly, is simply a lot.

In 2009, MediaTek’s concern was mostly dominated by 3 main niches: PC, consumer, and a catch-all “others” category. By 2026, MediaTek envisions itself being dispersed overmuch much arsenic crossed consumer, industrial, PC, mobile, and different areas. And portion MediaTek’s gone from being a $228 cardinal concern successful 2009 to an estimated $780 cardinal 1 successful 2026, its mobile enactment has changeable up from 6% to 13% of its operations.

Those numbers are important due to the fact that they awesome that MediaTek isn’t stepping distant from the mobile abstraction immoderate clip soon. While the company’s slogan for the adjacent twelvemonth is “more than mobile,” Lee made it wide that “more than mobile” doesn’t mean MediaTek is lessening its mobile focus, it simply wants folks to cognize that it isn’t just a mobile company.

“Mobile is inactive our archetypal precedence and what drives our future,” said Molen. “Obviously determination are different areas wherever you saw that. VR, automotive, Wi-Fi 7, 5G, and each of that.”

“But we conscionable request to person antithetic applications, antithetic customers. So that erstwhile we contiguous MediaTek arsenic a full company, they volition beryllium capable to spot that we are successful antithetic spaces,” helium said. “Although mobile has inactive been heavy mentioned, gradually we privation to spot much devices similar PSVR, TV. And hopefully successful the aboriginal we volition person immoderate much quality to announce.”

More MediaTek successful much places

Joe Maring/Digital Trends

Will 2023 beryllium the twelvemonth that MediaTek becomes conscionable arsenic synonymous with flagship smartphones arsenic Qualcomm? I’m not truly sure, but I besides don’t deliberation MediaTek cares astir that.

MediaTek surely wants its mobile concern to beryllium arsenic ample arsenic possible, and if it gets to a constituent wherever a MediaTek spot gets arsenic overmuch buzz and attraction arsenic a caller Snapdragon one, great! But MediaTek’s intelligibly doing conscionable good with its little flashy attack to mobile, and I can’t accidental I responsibility the institution 1 spot for that.