Premium mobile devices have almost universally been powered by Qualcomm’s leading edge Snapdragon processors and 5G modems (While Apple devices use their own processors, most still use Qualcomm 5G modems).
Indeed, even companies like Samsung that create their own processors and modems have employed Qualcomm devices in their premium devices in the US and some other countries as well. In the mid range and lower end, there has been more diversity, with processors from Samsung and in particular, MediaTek, taking a major share of the market, even as Qualcomm has put efforts into serving this market with lower performance Snapdragon chips. But the lower end and mid tier of mobile devices are incredibly competitive and price sensitive markets where many OEMs fight for market share.
MediaTek has been seen until recently primarily as a lower cost alternative provider in the low to mid tier than the higher end Qualcomm devices, as well as the price-conscious alternative in lower end devices, particularly in China. While this has been true for several years, recently MediaTek has been pushing hard to gain more respect from premium device producers. It has been pursuing a strategy of offering an alternative to Qualcomm at the high end, where Qualcomm’s near-monopoly has increased prices for high end smartphones. This near monopoly is about to change.
MediaTek has just announced its latest product in its Dimensity line of processors, the Dimensity 9300, and it’s a very compelling device. It boasts an array of advanced processing capability, including a high performance 8 core CPU, a 12 core implementation of Arm’s latest Immortalis GPU for high end gaming support, an advanced ISP for video and audio processing including noise cancellation, intelligent picture editing/processing and 4K HDR video, and an APU that is AI capable for LLM and GenAI support. It also adds a security processor subsystem to help with needed security features of the boot function and the OS. In addition it includes an advanced 5G modem (Release 16), and next generation WiFi 7 capability (although the 5G modem is a separate chip on the SoC). It’s also built on TSMC’s advanced 4nm process technology, although this is one step behind some of the newer 3nm process chips (e.g., Apple’s latest chips use TSMC’s 3nm process node), but equivalent to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Gen 3 chips.
While probably not quite as powerful as the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon chips (we’ve seen no benchmarks to provide a comparison as of yet), just having this much advanced capability gives MediaTek a real advantage in powering high end Smartphones and other mobile devices that it could not have done in the past. Given the current dynamic of tit for tat semiconductor restrictions between the US and China, MediaTek may have a competitive advantage due to its Taiwan origin versus Qualcomm’s US origin. And because Arm is currently suing Qualcomm, with no indication how this might affect OEM device makers longer term, having a competitive MediaTek option may be seen by some as insurance against potential negative consequences.
Bottom Line: The emergence of MediaTek as a true competitor to Qualcomm for powering premium devices means that smartphone OEMs will have a choice in selecting the core processor to meet the increasingly diverse market requirements in cost and performance, as well as product differentiation. This will be especially attractive to the numerous Chinese smartphone OEMs who have been looking for a Qualcomm alternative, especially given the unspoken trade war between the US and China (MediaTek is a Far East company with headquarters in Taiwan).
We expect the new Dimensity chip to help MediaTek capture a significant share of the premium mobile device market in addition to their current advanced position in the mid tier, and force Qualcomm to react with incentives for device OEMs to continue to use the Qualcomm chips, as its advantage is minimized in all but the most premium of devices. Such increased competition is a good thing for the market and should lead to more compelling devices at a wider range of price points and features.
Jack Gold is founder and principal analyst at J.Gold Associates, LLC. With more than 45 years of experience in the computer and electronics industries, and as an industry analyst for more than 25 years, he covers the many aspects of business and consumer computing and emerging technologies. Follow him on Twitter @jckgld or LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jckgld.