MediaTek Plans To Increase Capacity In R&D Centres In India

According to a new report by DigiTimes, MediaTek was the number one chipset maker in 2020, surpassing Qualcomm in the global market. Besides, the company has managed to increase its market share to 27.2 percent from 17.2 percent in 2019. The report also reveals that developing chipsets for entry-level and mid-range smartphones helped the company a lot. Meanwhile, we got a chance to speak with Kuldeep Malik, director - corporate sales, MediaTek India about these numbers and their plans for India.

How many research and development units you have in India?

Currently, MediaTek has 700+ R&D engineers across Noida, Bangalore & Mumbai. We are in the process of expanding the capacity of the centers to meet the rising demands from the industry, especially around Artificial Intelligence (AI) and 5G.

How do you see this 5G smartphone market?

There is a growing enthusiasm among smartphone users to invest in the next-generation phone, which would get them both 4G and 5G connectivity. Though the 5G launch is expected later this year, many users have already shown interest in 5G capable devices, so more 5G smartphones are getting ready and expected to hit the market this year.

You have become very aggressive for a couple of years. So please tell us the reason behind it?

We have been focussing on innovations around performance and affordability, which helped us deliver the best chipsets. Also, we have been focussing on wireless connectivity devices and home entertainment products. Apart from that, we also added support for 5G connectivity in our latest Dimensity chipsets. All these factors helped us to achieve our targets.

Apart from joining hands with smartphones, smart TV's what else we can expect from MediaTek this year?

We are already working with smart audio systems and smart speaker makers. On the home connectivity front, we are focussing on CPEs, WiFi routers, and home network products for applications such as home automation bridges, IP cameras, wireless storage, and more.

What kind of market share you have in the 4G smartphone segment and any target you are looking for this year?

With more OEMs joining our ecosystem and the availability of newer chipsets targeting the budget and mid-range smartphone segment, we are now planning to grab the No.1 position. Already, MediaTek has emerged as the No. 1 global smartphone chipset vendor in 2020. We also increased our market share to 27.2 percent globally.

Please tell us your projections for the smartphone market?

We expect greater demand for smartphones with 5G capabilities. Thus, we foresee our current Flagship Dimensity 1200 5G chip with features like octa-core CPU built on a 6nm node, Dual SIM, 2CC carrier aggregation will find mass adoption in the coming months.