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Taiwanese chipset maker MediaTek became the biggest smartphone chipset seller for the September ending quarter as U.S.’s ban on Huawei and mobile sales growth in India and China lifted sales of its System-on-Chip (SoC).
More than 100 million smartphones were sold globally with MediaTek chipsets in Q3 2020, according to an estimate by market research firm Counterpoint. The chip maker secured 31% market share in the same quarter, helped by a rebound in smartphone sales.
MediaTek’s growth in India and China, strong performance in the mid-range smartphones and Huawei’s ban made it the biggest smartphone chipset vendor, Counterpoint said.
Samsung, Xiaomi and Honor bought MediaTek chipsets, designed by TSMC, in Huawei’s absence. The share of MediaTek chipsets in Xiaomi increased more than three times since the same period last year.
In the 5G chipset market, Qualcomm was the biggest vendor in the September ending quarter. It powered 39% of the 5G phones sold globally.
"Qualcomm and MediaTek will continue to contend for the top position," said Ankit Malhotra, a research analyst, commenting on the outlook for chipset vendors.
Their immediate focus will be to bring 5G to the masses, he said.
(Update: The description of Counterpoint has been changed from cyber security firm to market research firm.)
