When it comes to the market of the chipset, two of the major competitors Qualcomm and Mediatek have always been ahead of the competition with Qualcomm having a marginal lead. However, this time Mediatek has taken the leap and has become one of the biggest smartphone chipset vendors with a 31-percent market share in the third quarter of 2020. The major market for Mediatek in the terms of growth has been China and India, where the company has got its majority of sales from.
However, when it comes to 5G enabled chipsets, Qualcomm still seems to have the lead over Mediatek. One other major reason for the growth of Mediatek seems to be the deteriorating growth of Huawei due to the US sanctions. As per the reports, more than 100 million smartphones were sold globally in the third quarter this year with Mediatek chipset and the company expanded its market share from 31% to 26% before. At the same time, the market share of Qualcomm has dropped by two percent from 31 to 29%. However, Qualcomm still holds 39% of the market share for 5 G-enabled chipsets which do seem to be a very strong point for the company.
As per the details, the sale of 5G enabled handsets have increased by double over the last quarter giving Qualcomm the edge in the 5G smartphone market. As per the official statement from Counterpoint Research Director Dale Gai, “MediaTek’s strong market share gain in Q3 2020 happened due to three reasons – strong performance in the mid-end smartphone price segment ($100 – $250) and emerging markets like LATAM and MEA, the US ban on Huawei and finally wins in leading OEMs like Samsung, Xiaomi, and Honor.“