Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek may not be everyone’s favourite smartphone chipset maker out there, but it has actually been used by more users than you would think. And according to the company’s third quarter earnings call today, MediTek has become the largest system-on-chip (SoC) manufacturer in the world. “We are now the largest smartphone SoC maker globally…our Android smartphone market share in North America will exceed 35% in 2021,” the company said during the call, according to a tweet by the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Brian Ma. He posted the tweet just a few hours ago, presumably while listening to the conference from an analyst’s spot.
MTK earnings: "we are now the largest smartphone SoC maker globally…our Android smartphone market share in North America will exceed 35% in 2021"
— Bryan Ma (@bryanbma) October 26, 2021
The fabless semiconductor company posted third-quarter earnings of NT$131,074 million, up 4.3% over the past quarter and 34.7% from the same quarter next year. “The higher quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year revenues were mainly benefited from migrations to higher product specifications or higher demand for all major product lines,” the company said in a press release.
The chipset maker isn’t always seen as a leading choice for smartphone processors today, but MediaTek’s chips have actually commanded a very high market share for a long time. Qualcomm’s chips may still be the preferred option for flagship devices, but MediaTek’s third quarter earnings show that Helio and Dimensity chips have done well for the company. The Poco C31 smartphone, launched last month, carried the MediaTek Helio G35 SoC. Companies like Oppo, Xiaomi, Realme and Nokia and even Samsung have used MediaTek’s chips on their smartphones this year.
What’s perhaps worth noting even more is that MediaTek’s market share in the North American market will grow beyond 35%. This could either mean that the sale of more affordable devices in those parts is growing, or that the company’s high-end chips are being preferred for more powerful smartphones. Most US and adjoining markets produce higher volumes for more expensive devices.
The Xiaomi Redmi Note 10T and the Redmi Note 10T 5G are also examples of devices running on MediaTek chips. While those two use the MediaTek Dimensity 700 chip, the OnePlus Nord 2 uses the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 MT6893.
