As more and more countries join the list of countries where commercial 5G has rolled out, 5G network coverage continues to expand. Subsequently, consumer demand for 5G smartphones is on the rise. As a result, a lot more 5G phones have been launched this year compared to the same period last year and there are more to come. 
With the increasing demand for 5G smartphones, the demand for 5G processors from mobile phone manufacturers is also increasing. Presently, MediaTek and Qualcomm are the major suppliers of 5G processors for smartphones. Although Huawei and Samsung manufacture their own in-house chipsets, they are mostly used for their own smartphones. In rare cases, we have seen a few models running on Samsung‘s 5G Exynos chipset like the Exynos 880-powered Vivo Y70s 5G.
As per a report carried by DigiTimes (Paywalled) the Taiwanese fabless chip maker is expected to ship more than 80 million mobile SoCs for 5G handsets in 2020. The report also hinted that most of the shipments will be to Chinese handset vendors. This is likely due to the spread in the 5G coverage in China. The projected shipment volume may push up MediaTek’s global market share in the segment to at least 40% and serve as a major growth driver for the company, the report tips.
While the estimates look impressive, they are lower than MediaTek’s projection of 200 million 5G mobile SoCs shipment for 2020. 200 million shipments would have been feasible but we don’t see the company getting such figures due to the slump in the smartphone market occasioned by the COVID 19 pandemic. Moreso, the Taiwanese semiconductor company still has Qualcomm to compete with. In addition, commercial 5G network is yet to role out in most cities outside China.
Presently, MediaTek has launched a number of 5G smartphone processors, including the Dimensity 1000 series, Dimensity 800 series and the Dimensity 820 series. There are rumours that MediaTek and Qualcomm will also introduce entry-level 5G smartphone processors in the third quarter of this year.
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