A new report has suggested that MediaTek will lead the global smartphone SoC market while Qualcomm will lead the global 5G smartphone SoC market. This marks a major shift in the industry.
According to a Counterpoint Research report, the global smartphone AP (application processor)/System on Chip (SoC) market is expected to see a growth of 3 percent year on year in 2021. This modest growth arrives despite supply constraints, while the 5G smartphone market sees rapid growth. Qualcomm and MediaTek are both major fabless SoC vendors, with the former expected to lead the 5G SoC market with a 30 percent market share while the latter will lead the global SoC market with a 37 percent share.
Research Director Dale Gai stated that “When we break down our forecast with respect to the current demand-supply dynamics, MediaTek is likely to continue its Q4 2020 momentum into 2021 and likely to capture 37% unit share of all the smartphone AP/SoC shipped for the full the year. This 20% potential annual uptick in demand is a function of competitive 5G portfolio powering sub-$150 5G smartphones manufactured at TSMC without any supply constraint and growing share in 4G segment.”
The report also adds that MediaTek would be benefitting from the supply constraint that has affected Qualcomm. These constraints are regarding RFICs (radio-frequency integrated circuits) from Samsung’s Austin fab, Power management ICs (PMIC), along with relatively lower 5nm production yields. Although, Qualcomm is expected to see better performance in the latter half of this year as it would seek to boost its 5G enabled Snapdragon lineup.
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