MediaTek may have overtaken Qualcomm in the US Android market

MediaTek may have just beaten Qualcomm to claim the largest market share of any Android phone chip maker in the US — at least, according to an analyst group.

According to IDC’s quarterly mobile sales tracking, MediaTek chips for the fourth quarter of 2021 account for 51 percent of all Android phones in the US, compared to Qualcomm’s 47 percent, As I spotted it PCMag. Those numbers are a stark reversal from the previous quarter, in which MediaTek took 41 percent of the market share versus Qualcomm’s 56 percent.

However, there are conflicting reports: Counterpoint Research’s own report puts the Q4 2021 split at 55 percent for Qualcomm and 37 percent for MediaTek, so it’s possible that Qualcomm is still clinging to its crown for now.

MediaTek is not a household name for smartphone processors like Qualcomm (which has long been the dominant force for Android phones in the US, especially for the premium flagship). But the company is steadily strengthening its presence in the United States in low- and mid-range devices, including LG Velvet or Moto G Pure.

MediaTek’s trick is to convince manufacturers and customers alike that its premium chips – Like Pioneer Dimension 9000Which the company says is more powerful than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 – is worth a try as it continues to try to break into the high-end Android market.

However, MediaTek isn’t resting on its laurels either: the company has announced three new chips that will further its goals of offering more powerful 5G chips. At the top of the market are the Dimensity 8100 and Dimensity 8000, which are hacked cousins ​​to the more powerful flagship Dimensity 9000.

While these two chipsets are built on the TSMC 5nm node (rather than the 4nm process used by Dimensity 9000) and use a less powerful CPU and GPU, they will offer some of the AI ​​and 5G features that debuted on the higher platform. . In addition, the company also announced the new 5G-capable Dimensity 1300 chipset, an upgraded version of the company’s Dimensity 1200 model with AI performance improvements.

All three of the new chips are set to debut in smartphones sometime in the first quarter of 2022 – presumably looking to help MediaTek continue to grow in the US (whether or not it has already outdone Qualcomm).

Update on March 1st at 3:30 PM ET: Additional information from Counterpoint Research has been added to indicate that there are conflicting reports on whether MediaTek has actually overtaken Qualcomm in US market share.