MediaTek moves upmarket with Android/HSPA chip
2G mass market player eyes sub-$200 smartphones and signs Lenovo, chasing Spreadtrum's 3G deals with Samsung
Published: 13 February, 2012
READ MORE: China | Semiconductor | HSDPA | Android
MediaTek has announced its latest attempt to move upmarket into the affordable smartphone market, as its traditional 2G baseband market with Chinese vendors comes under margin pressure. With its new MT6575 system-on-chip it is chasing similar moves by the other major Chinese baseband provider, Spreadtrum, which announced silicon geared to sub-$100 Android smartphones last month.
MediaTek new offering runs on a single-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor design and supports an HSPA modem and Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). The system also includes a graphics engine and an integrated connectivity package with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and FM radio. And it supports dual-SIM mode, which is popular in emerging economies.
The platform will be targeted at the sub-$200 handset category, which is currently seen mainly in the emerging economies which MediaTek's traditional products already target. However, even in developed mobile regions there is intense price pressure in the smartphone midmarket, and MediaTek may find a route into new, non-Chinese OEMs on that basis.
The firm has an uphill struggle to take its place in the 3G smartphone world alongside Qualcomm, even though it is the world's largest mobile chip vendor by unit volume. It shipped 550m chipsets in 2011 but only 10m were for smartphones and it generated far less revenue than Qualcomm, at $2.95bn. The firm has set up a business development unit to cultivate handset makers in north America and western Europe, and that division's director, Finbarr Moynihan, told FierceWireless that MediaTek was targeting 50m smartphone shipments in 2012. The first announced customer for the MT6575 is Lenovo, which is using the product in handsets for China Unicom. It has also licensed LTE IPR from NTT DoCoMo, but this is not expected to arrive in commercial chips until 2013 or later.
Recently, its rival Spreadtrum announced 1GHz single-core SoCs supporting China Mobile's 3G system, TD-SCDMA, or EDGE, along with Wi-Fi and Android, and targeting smartphones priced below $100. CEO Leo Li said in a statement: "Our 1GHz Android platform sets a new bar for low cost smartphone performance. This type of experience has previously been available only in mid- to high-end handset models and can now be delivered by OEMs in $100 smartphone models." However, the heavy focus on TD-SCDMA may prove a stepping stone to more premium models. Samsung has adopted the chipset for two top end models, in versions for China Mobile's network - the Galaxy SII and the new Galaxy Note.
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