MediaTek vs Qualcomm: The Ultimate Chipset Battle 2021
By now, many people would have changed their opinion when asked if they would choose MediaTek chipset or Qualcomm chipsets in their smartphone. Things have taken a giant leap in a course of about 5 years and while people hardly ever touched MediaTek-powered smartphones about 5 years ago, now MediaTek is the highest chipset supplier across the globe.
What brought this change and how did MediaTek succeed to win the confidence of people? Also, let us discuss the status of Qualcomm in the market in 2021.
What Went Positive for MediaTek?
From developing 28nm chipsets to promising 4nm chipsets in 2021, from deca-core chipsets that were discarded to extremely effective octa-core smartphone chipsets, MediaTek came a long way. If a brand went from absolutely nothing to end the monopoly of a certain world-class brand, it would be MediaTek for me in the recent years.
At one period, people hated the brand if you talk specifically about the smartphones, there were Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets, Exynos Chipsets and even Kirin Chipsets. However, if you look at the current picture in 2021, Kirin is breathing its last and may give up soon, Exynos has limited itself to high-end chipsets and now there is a tough battle between Qualcomm Snapdragon and MediaTek.
Going deeper, you can still see that Qualcomm has its stronghold in the flagship series of Android smartphones, while MediaTek has almost ended the reign of Qualcomm in the budget segment. Now, almost 90 percent of the budget smartphones occur with MediaTek chipsets and even people are liking this change.
In the mid-range segment, I would say that there is still a tough fight between the brands and you still cannot say whether MediaTek or Qualcomm has established its supremacy in the segment, However, one thing is for sure, whatever results we would observe in some years are bound to be really interesting.
But ending half of the 2021 by now and entering into the other half, it’s not just the smartphone segment that sees the battle. Both MediaTek and Qualcomm have their hands in various other gadgets including all kinds of smart electronic devices and home appliances. Not just this, smart vehicles and other voice-controlled objects too use these chipsets for functioning.
And in this, MediaTek has done much, much better than Qualcomm, powering every kind of smart speaker from Amazon, Google smart devices and in various other things such as Chromebooks, laptops, tablets, smart home appliances, smartwatches, smart TVs, smart home cleaning devices, smart camera section and smart vehicles as well.
This is something that has enhanced the value of MediaTek chipsets a bit more and currently, MediaTek powers more than 2 billion devices in a year and this is a huge number. So this means even if you say that you never used a MediaTek chipset, you might be using it unknowingly in some of the small and smart home devices in your personal life or home.
As I already told you that the popularity of MediaTek is so immense in 2021 that all of Amazon’s smart Echo devices with Alexa support use MediaTek chipsets only and these offer really good performance. Besides, the brands that never ever used MediaTek are going for it. A OnePlus smartphone is on cards with MediaTek Dimensity 1200 chipset and even a brand Apple is using MediaTek chipsets in the latest AirPods.
Why Qualcomm is Losing Market?
MediaTek profited in the first part of this year from its competitor Qualcomm, arriving in 2nd at 31%, which is facing a resource deficiency of RFICs (radio-frequency integrated circuits) from Samsung’s Texas resource devastated by troublesome winter hurricanes.
One more factor is the reduced output of 5nm wafers which Mediatek does not use which is another drawback for Qualcomm.
So these are some of the major advantages that MediaTek gained over the years and now MediaTek is the #1 chipset supplier across the world as far as smartphones are concerned. If this is a trend, I don’t think MediaTek is far enough in establishing its monopoly in the smartphone market.
