MediaTek, the fabless Semiconductor innovator has accelerated its development cycle relative to feature phones to remain competitive with global competitors Qualcomm, Broadcom and Marvell and stay ahead of emerging Chinese competitors RDA and Spreadtrum. They are launching chipsets through 2013 and 2014 for entry, mainstream, premium and tablet segments for emerging markets to offer a broad product line spanning sub-US$50 smartphones to more advanced US$200-300 tier-one like smartphones.
Lower Cost Chipsets for SmartPhones
MediaTek launched 2nd generation dual- (MT6572/MT6572M) and quad-core chipsets (6589M/6582M) in late 2Q13 to optimise cost structure of its mainstream products. The new products offer slightly lower clock speeds, lower image sensor and resolution capability but remain competitive with rival dual/quad-cores on the market including Qualcomm’s MSM 8226 for quad-core which will be out in 3Q13 and Spreadtrum’s SC8825/6825 for dual-core.
While Spreadtrum has announced availability on its single-core WCDMA chipset, we expect the product to create a new entry tier of US$50 smartphones similar to its lowcost EDGE and TD-SCDMA solutions; therefore, it will expand volumes for the overall market into a more cost-sensitive user.
Optimizing the Performance of MultiCore SmartPhone Chipets
MediaTek can do more than push cores to drive ASPs, it can also innovate to improve efficiency of the cores (big.LITTLE), capability and clock speed of the cores to drive higher resolution and megapixel camera, improve modem and connectivity (802.11ac, LTE) and also improve the graphics to drive better applications. MediaTek has introduced a turbo edition of its quad-core which scales the ARM Cortex A7 processor speed to up to 1.5GHz to support 13MP camera, HD display (1920×1080) and 30 FPS 1080P video.
Mediatek Processor for Tablets
MediaTek has created an extension of its popular MT6589 quad-core for smartphone chipset with its MT8125/MT8389 for tablets. The tablet chipset offers 1.5GHz speed, 1080p video playback, up to 13MP support and DTV video technology and also is bundled with 3G HSPA+ modem and 4- in-1 connectivity (Wifi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, FM) for a voice and always connected data tablet. The product has secured designs with Asus for its Memo Pad HD7, Acer Iconia famly, Lenovo A3000 and multiple whitebox.
The product has secured designs with Asus for its Memo Pad HD7, Acer Iconia famly, Lenovo A3000 and multiple whitebox. The company also introduced its big.LITTLE chipset combining dual ARM Cortex A15 and dual Cortex A7 with Imagination PowerVR Series 6 graphics optimised by MediaTek’s internal GPU team to allow branded tablet customers to be more competitive with multi-core GPUs. Entry barrier in GPU should help widen the gap between MediaTek and domestic Chinese competitors.